Mexican Cocaine Supplier Convicted

LAREDO, Texas – Salvador Ibarra De-Alba, 48, of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, has entered a plea of guilty for his role in a conspiracy to transport five kilograms or more of cocaine, announced United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson.

De-Alba was named in a sealed indictment returned Aug. 28, 2012, which indicated a drug trafficking organization had transported five kilograms or more of cocaine since 2008 from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to Houston and Miami, Fla., on a regular basis. De-Alba is the eighth conspirator to plead guilty in the case.

As part of the plea, De-Alba admitted he supplied cocaine to relatives living in Laredo and ensured its transportation further north into the United States. After the arrest of De-Alba’s brother, Juan Ramon Ibarra Sr. in 2010, De-Alba worked with his nephew, Juan Ramon Ibarra Jr., to continue the transportation of cocaine. Ibarra Sr. was sentenced to 130 months in federal prison along with another of his sons, Alejandro Ibarra, who received a sentence of 120 months. Ibarra Jr. is set for sentencing Feb. 3, 2014. 

U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo, who accepted De-Alba's plea and the others in this case, has set his sentencing also for Feb. 3, 2014, at which time he faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years up to a maximum of life in prison as well as a possible $10 million fine. The United States is also seeking a money judgment in the amount of $2,408,204.

The case is the result of a two-year Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Investigation dubbed Silver Fox Hunt led by the Drug Enforcement Administration with the assistance of Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant United States Attorneys James Hepburn and Elizabeth Rabe are handling the case.