US Marine gets 12 years for cross-border drug smuggling: NPR

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This September 12, 2021 photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows drugs hidden inside a car’s engine. US Customs and Border Protection via AP hide caption

toggle caption U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP

This September 12, 2021 photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows drugs hidden inside a car’s engine.

US Customs and Border Protection via AP

SAN DIEGO A former Marine who for years helped smuggle drugs from Mexico into the United States and even tried to have a song written to glorify his exploits was sentenced Friday to 12 years in federal prison.

Roberto Salazar II, 26, of San Diego, was convicted of importing fentanyl and conspiring to distribute heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Salazar, who pleaded guilty last October, could have faced life in prison.

He was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. Prosecutors said that before joining the corps and while on active duty, he and the couriers he recruited made dozens of smuggling trips across the border.

Salazar would get cars that were driven to Mexico, where drugs were loaded into the engine compartments. Couriers would then take them back across the border to the United States, prosecutors said.

The program began around 2015, authorities said.

At the time of his arrest last year, “Salazar had become so involved in the drug trade that he commissioned a Mexican songwriter to write a ballad about drugs known as ‘narcocorrido about him’. , the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

“In a line that Salazar suggested to the songwriter, he boasted, ‘I wanted to study and I became a soldier, but I liked the fast life better,'” the office said.

Some of the couriers recruited by Salazar were former Marines or classmates from Southwestern College in Chula Vista.

“This case involved a Marine who was supposed to protect and defend our country, but instead did great harm to Americans by trafficking fentanyl and other dangerous drugs,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said. “He also betrayed his solemn oath by recruiting other Marines to do the same.”

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