BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) has been sentenced to life in federal prison for fentanyl trafficking and money laundering, officials announced.
Juan Francisco Castaneda, 44, also known as “Pariente,” was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Madeline H. Haikala following his guilty plea. Castaneda is part of the CJNG, which the DEA calls “one of Mexico’s most powerful, influential and ruthless transnational criminal organizations,” and a major supplier of fentanyl to the United States.
A federal indictment unsealed in May 2023 charged nine people in a conspiracy to traffic fentanyl and launder money in Jefferson County, Alabama, from March 2022 to March 2023. Castaneda used a network of couriers and local businesses as fronts to distribute fentanyl and funnel proceeds back to the CJNG in Mexico.
At the time of the conspiracy, Castaneda was already serving multiple life sentences in the Alabama Department of Corrections for the murder of five people in Shelby County in 2008. Court documents detail that the quintuple homicide involved shocking and beating the victims, linked to $450,000 in missing cartel money.
Evidence presented at sentencing also revealed Castaneda had threatened co-defendants during the murder investigation and had been responsible for moving over 19 kilograms of fentanyl through the district. A $700,000 money judgment was also entered against him.
In October 2025, after two days of trial testimony, Castaneda pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic fentanyl, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and distribution of fentanyl in the Birmingham and Homewood areas.
U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona said the case underscores the DEA’s efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations operating in the U.S.
