Mexican Cartel Boss And Fuel Theft King 'El Marro' Sentenced To 60 Years In Prison

Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz when arrested by Mexican security forces. (Source: Guanajuato State Attorney General)

JAKARTA - A Mexican cartel leader who became one of Mexico's most wanted criminals due to his gang's industrial-scale oil theft has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, the State Prosecutor said.

Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz, a notorious fuel thief blamed for fomenting a sharp wave of violence in the state of Guanajuato, was arrested by the Government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in 2020.

Known as 'El Marro' (The Mallet), Yepez is the boss of the Guanajuato-based Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel. This cartel waged a bloody war in the state with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico's most powerful and most powerful cartels.

The Guanajuato Prosecutor General's Office said in a post on Twitter that a regional court had found El Marro and his group guilty of the crime of kidnapping, citing Reuters January 15.

Yepez is the highest-profile cartel arrested so far under the administration of President Lopez Obrador, which has vowed to lower record levels of violence and also reduce rampant oil theft from state-owned oil giant Pemex's pipeline.

The Santa Rosa de Lima cartel is involved in a range of criminal activities in Guanajuato, from drug smuggling to kidnappings. Fuel theft is often an easy source of cash in states crisscrossed by pipelines and home to major oil refineries.

To note, Mexican security forces have arrested the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima gang who spreads violence through north-central Mexico, fighting for years with another powerful criminal cartel, Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz, better known by his nickname "El Marro" was arrested along with five others, citing Al Jazeera August 2, 2020.

During the operation, security forces rescued a kidnapped local businessman, as well as securing a weapons 'warehouse', the Guanajuato Attorney General's office said at the time.