José Guadalupe Díaz Díaz, alias Zorro, 43, and Martín Artín Pérez Marrufo, alias Popeye, 54, both from Chihuahua (north), were found guilty last February.
A Texas federal jury found them guilty on multiple counts, including racketeering conspiracy, narcotics trafficking, narcotics importation, money laundering and murder.
On March 13, 2010, Díaz and Marrufo were part of the assassins who murdered the United States consulate employee Leslie Enríquez, her husband Arthur Redelfs, and Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of another worker.
The attack came after the victims left a child’s birthday party in Ciudad Juárez mistaking them for rival gang members.
The men who killed them “will now deservedly spend the rest of their lives in prison,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr, quoted in the Justice Department statement, thanking the Mexican government for extraditing them to USA.
At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Barrio Azteca is a transnational criminal organization engaged in money laundering, organized crime, and drug-related activities in El Paso, Texas.
The gang allied with other drug gangs to fight the Sinaloa cartel, then led by Chapo Guzmán, and his associates for control of drug trafficking routes through Juárez, Chihuahua.
The drug routes through Juárez, known as Plaza Juárez, are important to drug trafficking organizations because they provide a pathway into the United States.
