On August 30, 2024, the United States Department of Justice announced a 28-year prison sentence for Miguel Báez Guevara, alias ‘Javi’, a lieutenant of the Sinaloa Cartel who generated millions of dollars in profits through drug trafficking from Mexico to Alaska.
Under his leadership, the criminal group founded by Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán and Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada managed to expand its operations to the most remote area of the United States.
According to investigations by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Báez Guevara —an American national— took advantage of social media to deceive his fellow citizens in Alaska and swell the ranks of his criminal network.
Intelligence work led by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) showed that ‘El Javi’ and his associates set their sights on Alaska because the great distance from supply sources in Mexico translated into a substantial increase in their income from drug sales.
The indictment issued by the Alaska District Court details that Báez Guevara’s organization began trafficking heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine directly from Mexico to Alaska in 2016.
‘El Javi’ and his associates created multiple fake accounts on social media to contact Alaskans. According to court documents consulted by journalist Laura Sánchez Ley, from Milenio, they used names like Omar or Alejandro to approach their potential victims.
The files indicate that Miguel Báez primarily contacted women in Alaska, with whom he established a fictitious friendship. Once he gained their trust, he offered them all-expenses-paid trips to Mexico.
Later, ‘El Javi’ offered his new recruits money and drugs in exchange for traveling to Aztec lands to pick up shipments of narcotics and take them to Alaska. “The messengers were asked to share photographs of their driver’s licenses, as well as other personal information,” reads a report from the Department of Justice.
Likewise, ‘El Javi’ and his accomplices issued severe threats against their victims, in which they warned of violent repercussions against those who stole drugs from the criminal group or those who contacted the authorities.
The messengers recruited by Báez traveled in small groups to Mexico to collect small shipments of around 250 grams of drugs. On their return to Alaska, each group was supervised by a leader of the organization. Once in Alaska, another member of the criminal network received the illicit substances and paid the ‘mules’ for the work.
At that point, street dealers in Alaska contacted ‘Javi’ through encrypted messaging applications to coordinate the sale and distribution of profits. Throughout the six years that the criminal network operated, Báez Guevara did not set foot on US soil for fear of being arrested.
Since his youth, ‘El Javi’ was involved in activities such as drug trafficking and carrying firearms, crimes for which he was investigated and even imprisoned in the US. In 2014, after having paid a bail of 50 thousand dollars, he fled to Mexico. It was not until September 2021 that immigration authorities arrested him in Sonora and, shortly after, deported him to the US to face justice.
Source: infobae
