‘El Mentiroso’: St. Louis Cocaine Distributor Who Lied About a Mexican Cartel’s Money Gets 20 Years — Prosecutors Say the Cartel Sent Someone to Live With Him
A man prosecutors say distributed cocaine in St. Louis, Missouri, for a Mexican cartel — and lied so often about having the cartel’s money that he was nicknamed “El Mentiroso,” or “The Liar” — was sentenced Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, to 20 years in federal prison, FOX 2 St. Louis (KTVI) and KTTN News reported on Oct. 1, citing the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. Jose Luis Mata-Cedillo, 40, had been deported twice before.
A courier in Kansas, then cash and cocaine
Mata-Cedillo pleaded guilty in June to four felonies: conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, illegal reentry after deportation as an aggravated felon, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. In his plea agreement he admitted working as a St. Louis distributor for a large-scale drug trafficking organization operating in multiple countries, KTTN reported.
According to both outlets, Homeland Security Investigations began looking at him after a courier was intercepted in Junction City, Kansas, with about 27 kilograms (59.5 pounds) of cocaine. On April 26, 2025, Mata-Cedillo supplied a confidential informant with about 5 kilos of cocaine; that night investigators stopped a courier he had paid and seized $54,600 in cash and about 10 kilos of cocaine. Three days later, another courier he paid was stopped with $66,680.
By mid-May 2025, agents learned he was trying to order about 50 kilos of methamphetamine from Mexico. He was arrested at the planned delivery spot with a loaded 9 mm Glock handgun, KTTN reported.
‘The Liar’ and a cartel minder
A sentencing memorandum filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Torrie J. Schneider says Mata-Cedillo was involved in receiving at least 37 kilograms of cocaine and 50 kilograms of methamphetamine. It says he owed the cartel large sums and frequently lied about having its money, earning the “El Mentiroso” nickname, and that the cartel had someone live with him and monitor him for several weeks during the investigation. Neither outlet’s account names the cartel, and The Narco Blog does not name one.
Deported twice
He was caught at the border in El Paso, Texas, in 2008 and removed to Mexico, then deported again in 2020 after serving a 78-month federal sentence for a drug conspiracy conviction in the Western District of Washington. When arrested this time, he was living in St. Louis under another person’s name. HSI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection assisted the Missouri State Highway Patrol, FOX 2 reported.
Sources
- FOX 2 St. Louis (KTVI), via Yahoo News: “Man sentenced for distributing cocaine tied to Mexican cartel in St. Louis” (Oct. 1, 2026)
- KTTN News: “St. Louis cartel distributor gets 20 years for cocaine operations” (Oct. 1, 2026)
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri: sentencing announcement (cited by both outlets)
- Photos: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (public domain) and formulanone (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
Reported Oct. 1, 2026, from FOX 2 St. Louis and KTTN News accounts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office announcement; The Narco Blog could not load the Justice Department page directly. The sources do not name the cartel or the sentencing judge.