A man accused of transporting and distributing drugs in Arkansas for a Mexican drug cartel pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge Thursday in exchange for the dismissal of several other charges against him.
Emanuel "Chi Chi" Ilo, 37, admitted in a plea agreement that Mohammad Martinez, the son of a woman identified by the FBI as a leader of the Gulf Cartel, recruited him to help distribute cocaine when the two were in the federal prison in Forrest City together in 2010. Ilo was released from prison that year.
The Gulf Cartel is based in Matamoros, Mexico, and is responsible for the distribution of hundreds of pounds of cocaine in the U.S., according to an FBI news release.
Ilo and Martinez had telephone conversations -- recordings of which were used as evidence in the case -- discussing how and when Ilo would cross the border into Mexico to obtain the drugs and where he could get the necessary documents, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon said.
In one of these recorded telephone conversations, cartel members referred to Ilo as "part of the family now."
Ilo re-entered the U.S. from Mexico on Sept. 9, 2010, three months after his release from prison, Gordon said. FBI agents bought cocaine from Ilo several times from March 2011 to February 2012, and he distributed drugs in Little Rock, Gordon said.
Ilo pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms (about 11 pounds) of cocaine, a felony. As part of the plea agreement, all other charges against him in the case were dropped, including six counts of distribution of cocaine and two counts of using a telephone to facilitate a drug-trafficking crime, according to an FBI news release.
By accepting the plea agreement, he waived the right to appeal Judge Susan Webber Wright's decision, and he will not have the opportunity to be released on parole.
Ilo will serve at least 10 years in prison, may pay a maximum fine of $10 million and will have five years of supervised release after he gets out of prison, Wright said. Wright said she will determine the details of Ilo's sentence after a presentencing interview.
Ilo was one of 16 people arrested in the case, including eight from Little Rock.
Martinez -- a son of Idalia Ramos-Rangel, who the FBI says is a high-ranking leader of the cartel -- admitted in 2014 that he recruited fellow inmates in Forrest City to help his mother distribute cocaine into central Arkansas.
Martinez -- who was in Forrest City serving a sentence of nearly 23 years for a 2006 federal drug conviction in Texas -- pleaded guilty in July 2014 to a charge of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute between 15 and 50 kilograms (33 to 110 pounds) of cocaine.
His brother, Homar Martinez, pleaded guilty before a federal judge in Brownsville, Texas, to the same charge in the Little Rock case that same week after similar charges were brought against him by a grand jury in the Southern District of Texas.
Ramos-Rangel also is charged with multiple drug offenses relating to the case. She is still at large and has been wanted by the FBI since the mid-1980s. The agency is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to her arrest.
One of her daughters, Nishme Martinez, also was arrested in the case. She was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, according to the FBI news release.
"The arrests made in this case have dismantled a primary supply of cocaine into the state of Arkansas," U.S. Attorney Christopher Thyer said in the release.
Information for this article was contributed by Linda Satter of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 06/03/2016