A suspected mid-level member of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel has been convicted for narcotics trading by a Makati City court, the Department of Justice said yesterday.
DoJ spokesperson Undersecretary Markk Perete said that DoJ prosecutors secured the conviction of Mexican Horacio Hernandez Herrera who has been found guilty of sale of dangerous drugs under Section 5, Article 2 of Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
“The Department of Justice has secured the conviction of Horacio Hernandez Herrera under Section 5, RA No. 9165,” Perete said in a statement.
“In a decision dated 13 February 2018, Judge Selma Palacio Alaras found Herrera guilty beyond reasonable doubt for the sale of 2.5 kilos of cocaine on 11 January 2015 in Makati City,” he said.
In a seven-page decision, Alaras sentenced Herrera to life imprisonment and ordered him to pay a fine ranging from P500,000 to P10 million.
Perete congratulated the prosecutors who secured the conviction, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera and Assistant State Prosecutors Josie Christina Dugay and Ethel Rea Suril.
“The Department welcomes the conviction handed down by Judge Alaras and congratulates its prosecutors for their able handling of this case,” he stated. “It is through their efforts, as well as that of our law enforcers, that we are able to keep safe our communities,” Perete added.
Perete noted that Herrera is believed to be “a mid-level member of the Sinaloan Mexican drug cartel engaged in the supply of shabu, ecstacy, and cocaine in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.”
“He was arrested in a buy-bust operation conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Special Enforcement Service, involving the sale of cocaine for $2,500,” he added. (Jeffrey Damicog)
