By james art 
Two Texans will each spend a decade behind bars after being convicted of distributing and conspiring to distribute cocaine, said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Alamdar S. Hamdani in a press release.
Guillermo Fernando Rojo, 39, of Laredo, and Gilbert Zambrano Saldivar, 45, of Dallas, pleaded guilty on March 5 and April 4, respectively, the news release said Monday.
U.S. District Judge Diana Saldaña sentenced both men to 10 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
Two other defendants, Omar Acosta, 41, of Laredo, and Juan Ambrosio Barrientos-Cano, 34, of Austin, previously received the same prison terms.
Authorities said that from November to December 2021. Acosta and Rojo ordered another person to travel from Laredo to Austin to get 5 kilograms, or about 11 pounds, of cocaine and $9,000 in cash from Barrientos-Cano. He was to deliver the drugs to a courier in Dallas and the money to Acosta and Rojo. The cocaine had an estimated street value of $81,150, authorities said.
In Dallas, the man delivered packages of counterfeit cocaine to Saldivar, who also acted on instructions from Acosta and Rojo, authorities said. The man then reported that the packages had been successfully delivered. Authorities intercepted the shipment and arrested Saldivar.
Days later, Rojo contacted the man to arrange payment to pick up the drugs from Barrientos-Cano and deliver the cocaine to Saldivar. Authorities then arrested the remaining three co-conspirators, who confessed to their roles in the crime.
Investigators found previous incidents in which accomplices shipped multi-pound quantities of cocaine from the border in Laredo to major cities in Texas, Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi, the news release said.
The defendants also collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds and delivered the money to Acosta and Rojo to fund the organization’s operations in the U.S. and Mexico, officials said.
Investigators also found that truck drivers were smuggling packages of cocaine from Mexico and delivering them to Acosta, Rojo or to couriers the men recruited, ordered and paid, the news release said.
Officials said Acosta and Rojo transported about $280,000 in proceeds in the three weeks before they were arrested and sometimes shipped up to $500,000 into Mexico in single smuggling episodes.
The investigation found that the Mexican promoters paid Acosta and Rojo 5% of the money raised outside Texas and 2% of the revenue raised in Texas.
At sentencing, Rojo was allowed to remain on bail; Saldivar will remain in custody pending his later transfer to a US Bureau of Prisons facility.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating the case with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Laredo and Austin police departments.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose Angel Moreno took over the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose Homero Ramirez is handling the sentencing.