Mexican national sentenced to 20 years for international cocaine trafficking conspiracy

HOUSTON - A 51-year-old Houston man has been sentenced for his role in an ongoing cocaine distribution scheme that spanned nearly a decade, announced Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck.

Leonel Mata Luna pleaded guilty Sept. 6, 2023.

U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen has now ordered Luna to serve 240 months in federal prison, followed by four years of supervised release. At the hearing, Luna admitted he violated the terms of his supervised release stemming from a prior federal drug trafficking conviction. The court imposed a concurrent 30-month sentence for the supervised release violation.

During the hearing, the court heard additional evidence that Luna served as a leader in a drug trafficking organization responsible for trafficking more than 100 kilos of cocaine during the course of the conspiracy. Luna admitted he was a member of the drug trafficking organization while residing in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. His role was to oversee the receipt and packaging of cocaine in Mexico and coordinate its transportation to the U.S. border. The drugs were then smuggled by vehicle into the United States on a monthly basis.

The cocaine was initially transported to Houston where it was further distributed throughout the United States.

In December 2015, law enforcement agents seized 176 kilograms of cocaine, two kilograms of meth and $3.5 million in drug proceeds after executing search warrants at three stash houses controlled by the organization in Houston.

Luna was a fugitive for seven years until his arrest in Monterrey, Mexico, in Sept. 2022as part of a joint Mexican and American law enforcement operation. He was subsequently removed from Mexico and transported to Houston for prosecution.

To date, 15 defendants have been convicted in relation to the conspiracy.

Luna will remain in custody pending transfer to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Houston Police Department conducted the investigation.

This Operation is now part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of U.S. law enforcement towards identifying, investigating and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes these organizations commit, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey N. MacDonald and Anibal J. Alaniz prosecuted the case.