Thread: Cartel enforcer from El Paso gets life in Tennessee slayings

Cartel enforcer from El Paso gets life in Tennessee slayings
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 09/03/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


EL PASO -- An El Paso man convicted of being an enforcer for the Juárez drug cartel was sentenced last week to two life terms plus 50 years in prison in a double murder over the theft of cocaine in Memphis, Tenn.
Daniel "Chino" Lopez was convicted in July of kidnapping and killing Taurus Vester, 32, and Vester's pregnant girlfriend Octavia Nelson, 30. Their bodies were found in an Oldsmobile left parked behind a church in 2005, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.

Lopez, 30, had been sent to Memphis to solve the theft of 6.6 pounds of cartel cocaine in bricks stamped with the Lacoste alligator symbol and worth about $60,000, the Memphis newspaper reported. It was later revealed that someone other than the slain couple took the cocaine.

Lopez denied killing the pair during the trial, which had tight security and an anonymous jury identifiable only by numbers.

A Congressional Research Service report earlier this year stated that Mexican drug cartels have cells across the United States. The cartels often have alliances with local gangs to distribute drugs.


Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_10366219

Lopez, 30, had been sent to Memphis to solve the theft of 6.6 pounds of cartel cocaine in bricks stamped with the Lacoste alligator symbol and worth about $60,000

Sounds like Lacoste also has a copyright infringement suit against this cartel.