Leader of the H-2 Drug Cartel Extradited to Face Narcotics Trafficking Charges in Brooklyn Federal Court
Jesus Ricardo Patron Sanchez, also known as ‘H-3,’ ‘Diabolic,’ ‘Vela,’ ‘James Bond’ and ‘Xmen,’ was arraigned on February 22, 2025, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on an indictment charging him with leading a continuing criminal enterprise, participating in a large-scale narcotics distribution conspiracy and using one or more firearms in connection with narcotic offenses.
Sanchez, a Mexican citizen, was arrested in Mexico in February 2019 on a provisional arrest warrant issued based upon charges in the Eastern District of New York and subsequently extradited from Mexico to the United States on February 21, 2025.
The arraignment was held before United States Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo. Sanchez was ordered detained pending trial.
United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, John J. Durham, and Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Los Angeles Field Division, announced the extradition and arraignment.
‘As alleged in the indictment and court filings, Sanchez was one of the principal leaders of the H-2 Drug Trafficking Organization, a brutally violent transnational criminal organization that flooded American streets with dangerous drugs and protected its operations through murder and corruption,’ stated United States Attorney Durham.
‘This Office is committed to working with its federal and international partners to bring leaders of cartels and transnational criminal organizations to justice in the United States and to hold them accountable for the death and destruction they have unleashed here and abroad.
‘Our country is facing an unprecedented drug crisis. Violent drug trafficking organizations, like H-2, fueled by unrelenting and callous greed have been saturating our communities with poison, death, and chronic devastation,’ stated DEA Special Agent in Charge Allen.
According to the indictment and court filings, Sanchez was a leader of the H-2 Drug Trafficking Organization (the H-2 DTO), a violent Mexican drug trafficking organization based in Nayarit and Sinaloa, Mexico. Sanchez’s alias ‘H-3’ is a reference to his status as a successor to Hector Beltran-Leyva, the original ‘H’ and one of the principal leaders of the Beltran Leyva Cartel that was previously part of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The H-2 DTO had numerous distribution cells in the United States, including in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Ohio, Minnesota, North Carolina and New York. The DEA estimates that between January 2013 and February 2017, the H-2 DTO distributed, on a monthly basis, hundreds of kilograms of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, and thousands of kilograms of marijuana into the United States and earned millions of dollars in illegal proceeds in return.
Related Federal Cases
- Live Nation/Ticketmaster Rejected DOJ Settlement, New York NY, 2023 · New York
- Live Nation, Antitrust Lawsuit, New York NY, 2024 · Oklahoma
- Ticketmaster, Antitrust Violation, New York NY, 2023 · Oklahoma
- Unknown Defendant, Drug Trafficking, New York NY, 1983 · Texas
- Amgen Pays $71M for Pushing Drugs Off-Label · Oklahoma
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
ðŸâ€Â’ Get the grimiest stories delivered weekly. Subscribe free →
MORE FEDERAL CRIME NEWS
Drug TraffickingDrug TraffickingDrug TraffickingDrug Trafficking