A federal judge in McAllen sent a top Gulf Cartel member to prison. Cleofas Alberto Martinez Gutierrez got 12 years. Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane gave the sentence on September 9.

People called Martinez "El Guero Cleofas." The court says he was a boss for the cartel in Reynosa, Mexico. He worked under a boss named Samuel "Metro 3" Flores Borrego.

From 2009 to 2012, Martinez fed marijuana into South Texas. Court records say he moved more than 13,000 pounds across the border. He worked with a Weslaco man named Daniel Nunez. Nunez then shipped the drugs to Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Orlando.

"I apologize for all the bad decisions and mistakes I've made," Martinez told the judge that day.

Nunez already paid a steep price. A judge sent him to prison for life back in 2014. Nunez tried to help himself. He gave the court tips on other traffickers. Judge Crane was not moved.

"You haven't actually been of assistance, which is surprising to me because you're so involved in this," Crane said in 2014.

Martinez stayed free in Mexico for years after that. The Gulf Cartel split into rival gangs. Martinez stuck with the Reynosa side. Gunmen killed his boss in 2011. Martinez moved up after that.

Mexican cops caught him in 2016. They found him at a horse race in Mexico City. Mexico filed charges. That case fell apart, though. A court there set him free.

In 2022, Mexico sent Martinez to Texas. A grand jury had already charged him with drug crimes. Martinez made a deal. He pleaded guilty in 2024. He said he did supply Nunez with marijuana.

Patricia Cook Profit was the prosecutor. She said agents found corridos, or ballads, about Martinez and Nunez. "In the corridos, we had him and Daniel Nunez talking about: They had to go to war, they had to go to war, they had to protect the cartel," Profit said.

Martinez's lawyer pushed back. He said his client's role was smaller than claimed. Attorney Crispin "C.J." Quintanilla said a court report got it wrong. He said it wrongly named Martinez as the top Reynosa boss during those years. Quintanilla said Martinez only held a boss job for a short time. That was in Camargo, right before his 2016 arrest.

Prosecutors said the exact title did not matter much. They called Martinez a big player either way.

Sentencing rules called for 22 to 27 years in prison. That range comes from the drug amount and the cartel's guns. But the government asked for less time in a sealed filing. The record does not say why. Judge Crane said yes anyway. He gave Martinez 144 months. That is 12 years. It is less than the rules called for.

More than ten years passed. That is how long it took from his arrest in Mexico City to his sentence in McAllen. His case shows how long a cartel case can drag on. That is true even after an arrest makes news on both sides of the border.

Court records point to roughly 22 people charged over the years in this drug ring, with most of those cases already resolved by guilty pleas. Nunez is still the only one who got life.

The case shows how deep the Gulf Cartel's supply lines ran into the Rio Grande Valley. Loads that crossed near the river ended up on streets far away, like Florida. Prosecutors say the drug money flowed right back across the border into Mexico.

The Gulf Cartel has run Reynosa and the border area near McAllen for decades. Bosses like Martinez keep drugs moving north and cash moving south. Federal courts in South Texas have put away several top cartel figures in recent years. This case adds one more name to that list.

Martinez will serve his 12 year term in the federal Bureau of Prisons. It is not clear yet which prison will hold him.