Mexican Cop-Turned-Sinaloa Cartel Enforcer Gets Life in U.S. Prison

A top Sinaloa Cartel enforcer will spend the rest of his life in a U.S. prison for his role in helping the organization trade more than $1 billion in cocaine for weapons to support turf wars at the U.S.-Mexico Border.

During a court hearing late last week, 50-year-old Arturo Shows “Chou” Urquidi was sentenced to a life term, court documents revealed. A federal jury in El Paso convicted Urquidi on drug, money laundering, and weapons conspiracy charges in October 2021.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed that Urquidi was a Chihuahua State Police officer before becoming a member of the Sinaloa Cartel. During his time in the drug trade, he worked with kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and is one of dozens listed in the indictment filed against Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. While the indictment is from 2012, it was not until 2018 when authorities were able to extradite Urquidi from Mexico, information released at the time by the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed.

The indictment claims that since January 2000, the Sinaloa Cartel has established a presence in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, to move drugs across the border. To protect their operations from the rival Juarez Cartel, the Beltran Leyva, and others, the Sinaloa Cartel sent out teams of enforcers and triggered a large-scale turf war which earned the city’s reputation as the murder capital of the world. Some of the murder victims were U.S. citizens in Mexico. The cartel also carried out violent crimes in the U.S.

According to prosecutors, Urquidi worked as an enforcer for Sergio “Coma” Garduno Escobedo, who was a state police commander and regional boss for the cartel in Juarez. As part of his job, Urquidi helped run security for stash houses used to transfer cocaine and weapons shipments.

In the same trial where jurors convicted Urquidi, they also convicted 36-year-old Mario “El 2 or Grim Reaper” Iglesias Villegas for organized crime charges including conspiracy to kill in a foreign country and kidnapping. He is expected to be sentenced on March 24.