Los Zetas Cartel Member Pleads Guilty to Federal Drug Trafficking

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High-Ranking Member of Los Zetas Cartel Pleads Guilty to Federal Drug Trafficking Conspiracy

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Share For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs A Mexican national and high-ranking violent member of the Los Zetas cartel pleaded guilty today to federal narcotics charges.

According to court documents, Daniel Perez Rojas, also known as Cachetes and Cacheton 49, of Mexico, was a high-ranking member of Los Zetas cartel, a drug trafficking organization comprised primarily of former Mexican military officers that began as an armed militaristic wing of the Gulf Cartel. Perez Rojas defected from the Mexican military’s special forces unit in 2001 to join Los Zetas. He served in security roles for the then-leaders of Los Zetas before being named in 2007 as the successor to then-leader Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano.

“Daniel Perez Rojas was a high-ranking member of Los Zetas Cartel, one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations in Mexico that trafficked massive amounts of cocaine and marijuana into the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Perez Rojas was responsible for rampant violence, corruption, and intimidation in Mexico and elsewhere that allowed the cartel’s rampant drug trafficking to continue. Today’s conviction is a powerful reminder that the Criminal Division will aggressively pursue violent cartel members and hold them accountable for the harm they have caused here and abroad.”

“Daniel Perez Rojas, a high-ranking member of the Los Zetas cartel, was transferred to the United States in August, and today pled guilty to federal drug charges,” said Chief of Operations Matthew W. Allen of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). “Let this be a clear message: No one escapes justice in America. This Administration will use the full strength of the federal government to defend our nation and protect the American people.”

Perez Rojas routinely used violence on the cartel’s behalf. In 2008, he traveled to Guatemala, where Los Zetas had paid millions of dollars in bribes to the newly elected president. Perez Rojas and other Los Zetas members met with Guatemalan government officials to discuss the cartel’s expansion into Guatemala and with other drug traffickers to arrange supplies of cocaine. During a meeting with a rival Guatemalan drug trafficker, Perez Rojas and other Los Zetas members murdered that rival and several of his associates and bodyguards.

Perez Rojas pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and one thousand kilograms or more of marijuana for unlawful importation into the United States. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 30 and faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The DEA is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Kirk Handrich, Hunter Smith and Erik Cervantes of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering Narcotics and Forfeiture Section are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance in connection with Perez-Rojas’ August 2025 transfer from Mexico to the United States pursuant to Mexico’s National Security law.

The Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section’s (MNF) mission is to take the profit out of crime, eliminate drug cartels, and protect the U.S. financial system. MNF pursues criminal prosecutions and criminal and civil asset recovery actions involving: financial facilitators who launder profits for criminals; financial institutions and their officers and employees whose actions threaten the U.S. financial system and financial institutions; international money launderers who support transnational organized crime; and the top command and control of international drug trafficking organizations.

MNF’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Unit investigates and prosecutes the top command and control elements of international drug cartels, drug trafficking organizations and related transnational criminal organizations.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Homeland Security Task Force and Project Safe Neighborhoods.

This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.

Updated April 22, 2026 Components Criminal Division Criminal - Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Press Release Number: 26-390

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