A former leader of the Barrio Azteca criminal organization has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a RICO violation. Salvador Garcia-Garcia, also known as Ardilla, age 56 and a resident of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, was sentenced last week in El Paso, Texas.
Court documents state that Garcia-Garcia coordinated heroin shipments from Juarez to El Paso for the Barrio Azteca group. He managed these narcotics smuggling operations between August 1, 2010, and September 10, 2014. During this period, he recruited other members and associates to help smuggle heroin into El Paso.
Garcia-Garcia was indicted on September 10, 2014, facing seven counts that included conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through racketeering activity, murder in aid of racketeering activity, three drug trafficking charges, conspiracy to launder money, and transferring a firearm to a prohibited person. Federal authorities arrested him on June 20, 2024. He pleaded guilty to the RICO charge on April 7, 2025.
Eighteen co-defendants in the case have been sentenced since 2016. Among them is Juan Pablo Espino, another Barrio Azteca leader who received concurrent sentences totaling over two decades in prison for racketeering conspiracy and money laundering in June 2017.
U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas announced the sentencing.
The investigation involved several agencies: the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the El Paso Police Department, and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steve Spitzer and Antonio Franco prosecuted the case.
