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Money-launderer for Sinaloa cartel sentenced to 8 years

Posted September 23, 2016 7:00 am

The Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) - A money-launderer and associate of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo sentenced 29-year-old Edgar Manuel Valencia Ortega on Friday in Chicago and noted he laundered millions of dollars in drug money. The judge said Ortega was unusual because he started out near the top of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times (http://bit.ly/2czGMPd), Ortega wore headphones to hear a Spanish translation of court proceedings and read a brief statement apologizing to his family and to the United States.

Ortega is known as "El Zorro," or "The Fox." He was arrested in Las Vegas in 2013.

Guzman is in prison in Mexico but is a defendant in the same case in which Ortega was prosecuted.

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Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://chicago.suntimes.com/

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