Cartel enforcer pleads guilty in San Diego to federal drug charges

A man described by prosecutors as a Mexican cartel enforcer pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court today to drug trafficking charges.

Edgar Herrera Pardo was originally indicted in 2019 for his role in Los Cabos, a group of cartel enforcers the U.S. Attorney's Office says worked to control the border region to ensure drug trafficking continued unabated for Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, or CJNG.

His plea agreement to charges related to the distribution of heroin and methamphetamine also includes admissions to ordering the murder of a police officer in Tijuana in 2018 and ordering co-conspirators to hang a "narco banner'' in Tijuana in order to intimidate rivals.

Prosecutors allege Los Cabos are also responsible for the 2018 slayings of three San Diego-area teenagers in Tijuana and the killings of at least three police officers.

Herrera Pardo, who is also known by the moniker El Caiman, was arrested in Mexico about four months after he was indicted and had been in custody there until last August, when he was extradited to San Diego.   

He faces a minimum of 10 years imprisonment and a maximum of life when he is sentenced in July.