13,000 Pounds of Marijuana for Rio Grande Valley Smugglers: Gulf Cartel Lieutenant Gets 12 Years in Texas, a Decade After His Mexico City Arrest
A man described as a high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel has been sentenced to 12 years in U.S. federal prison for supplying Rio Grande Valley drug smugglers with more than 13,000 pounds of marijuana, according to a report by Dave Hendricks of ValleyCentral, published on Border Report on September 17, 2026. The sentencing came more than a decade after Cleofas Alberto Martinez Gutierrez was first arrested at a horse race in Mexico City.
Marijuana to stash houses, then to four U.S. cities
According to the report, Martinez answered to Samuel “Metro 3” Flores Borrego, then the Gulf Cartel’s plaza boss in Reynosa. From 2009 to 2012, Martinez supplied marijuana to Daniel Nuñez, 50, of Weslaco, Texas, who headed a major drug trafficking organization. Nuñez shipped the drugs from Rio Grande Valley stash houses to dealers in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Orlando, Florida, the report said. Prosecutors charged Martinez, Nuñez and 20 others in the conspiracy. Nuñez was sentenced to life in prison in 2014.
Acquitted in Mexico, sent to Texas
Martinez stayed in Mexico as the Gulf Cartel split into warring factions in Tamaulipas. His boss was killed in September 2011. Police arrested Martinez in Mexico City in 2016, but a Mexican case against him collapsed and he was acquitted, ValleyCentral reported. In 2022, Mexico sent him to Texas, where he had been indicted on federal drug trafficking charges. He pleaded guilty in 2024 and admitted supplying Nuñez with marijuana.
Corridos, a sealed motion and a reduced sentence
At the September 9 hearing, defense attorney Crispin “C.J.” Quintanilla disputed a probation report calling Martinez the Gulf Cartel’s plaza boss in Reynosa, saying there was no evidence of it. He said Martinez became a plaza boss only briefly, just before his arrest, which he thought was in Camargo. Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Cook Profit called Martinez a major player in the cartel. She said agents found corridos, or folk ballads, about Martinez and Nuñez in which they spoke of having to “go to war” to “protect the cartel.”
Sentencing guidelines called for 262 to 327 months. U.S. District Judge Randy Crane granted a sealed government motion and imposed 144 months. “I apologize for all the bad decisions and mistakes I’ve made,” Martinez told the court, according to the report.
Sources
Reported September 24, 2026, from ValleyCentral’s account of the sentencing and the court records it published. The Narco Blog did not independently review the court filings. The contents of the government’s sealed motion have not been made public.