Overview

• A superseding indictment returned in the Northern District of Illinois charges Oscar Manuel Gastelum Iribe, 50, known as “El Musico,” with terrorism, drug trafficking, firearm offenses and engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise.
• Prosecutors allege he co-led the Beltran Leyva faction and directed the importation of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and other drugs—sometimes in shipments of hundreds or thousands of kilograms—for distribution across the United States, including Chicago.
• The indictment claims he ordered violent attacks against rivals, military personnel and law enforcement, including the murder of a Mexican police officer, and oversaw kidnappings, assaults and bribery.
• Charging documents say the faction armed members with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and explosives to protect trafficking operations.
• The terrorism counts rely on Executive Order 14157 and the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization designation of the Sinaloa Cartel; Gastelum Iribe remains a fugitive under a federal warrant and faces mandatory life if convicted, with the case announced under Operation Take Back America after a multiagency investigation involving DOJ, HSI, FBI and DEA.