WASHINGTON—A Mexican drug cartel member accused of faking his death to avoid capture was sentenced Thursday to more than 11 years in U.S. prison for his money laundering role in one of his home country’s largest and most violent narcotics trafficking organizations.
Cristian Fernando Gutierrez-Ochoa was living in California under a phony identity when he was arrested in November 2024. The father of his longtime girlfriend is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, the fugitive Jalisco New Generation boss known as El Mencho.
Gutierrez-Ochoa was wanted in Mexico on suspicion of kidnapping two Mexican Navy members in 2021 to secure the release of El Mencho’s wife after she had been arrested by Mexican authorities, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration agent’s affidavit….