ATLANTA – A man federal prosecutors say helped run a major cocaine-smuggling and money-laundering network tied to the Sinaloa and Beltran-Leyva cartels has been sentenced to nearly 19 years in prison.
Roberto Lopez, also known as Shrek and NWA, was sentenced to 18 years, 10 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. The sentencing was announced Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026.
“Before he went underground, Lopez was the head of domestic transportation for ruthless and far-reaching cartels that poured drugs into our community with military-level precision,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said. “Even if it takes decades, my office and our law enforcement partners in the Homeland Security Task Force will never cease our efforts to track and arrest fugitives in their hiding places and hold them accountable for their crimes.”
“Lopez’s sentence is the result of a determined and coordinated effort to dismantle the criminal network he was a part of,” said Michael J. Connolly, acting special agent in charge of the DEA Atlanta Field Division. “The success of this investigation demonstrates the strength of our Homeland Security Task Force partnerships and what we can accomplish when agencies work together.”
Federal prosecutors said Lopez was a primary lieutenant for Edgar Valdez-Villareal, known as La Barbie, and U.S.-based trucking businessman Carlos Montemayor. Prosecutors said that in the early 2000s, Valdez was an enforcer for the Sinaloa and Beltran-Leyva cartels during a war against the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, and that Valdez and Montemayor operated a distribution network that moved up to 300 kilograms of cocaine per week to Atlanta, Memphis and other cities.
Prosecutors said the organization smuggled cash back to Mexico in shipments carrying no less than $1 million per load, and that in a six-month period the organization distributed 1,500 kilograms of cocaine in Atlanta alone.
The cartels’ operation was also estimated to have smuggled more than 1,000 rifles, 100-200 converted machineguns, and hundreds of magazines and ammunition drums into Mexico from the United States, along with silencers, night vision goggles, ballistic vests, helmets and other equipment, prosecutors said.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Lopez handled logistics including payments to truck drivers and stash house operators, as well as repackaging and transporting money over the border. Prosecutors said he was repeatedly intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps discussing cocaine loads bound for the United States and cash shipments destined for cartel leaders.
After the investigation disrupted the organization, prosecutors said Lopez fled to Mexico and remained in hiding until his arrest there in 2024.
Lopez, 46, of Laredo, Texas, and Mexico City, was indicted Dec. 15, 2009. He was arrested in Mexico City on June 27, 2024, and expelled by Mexico to the United States on Aug. 12, 2025. He pleaded guilty May 19, 2026, to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The U.S. attorney’s office noted that Valdez was sentenced in 2018 to 49 years and one month in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, and that Montemayor was sentenced in 2019 to 34 years and three months in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service and the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, the release said. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Garrett L. Bradford and Elizabeth M. Hathaway and former U.S. Attorney John Horn prosecuted the case.
The prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.