Juan Roman Matta-Ballesteros is also known as Matta Ballesteros or Matta Narcos. He was regarded as one of the first to connect Mexican drug traffickers with the Colombia Cocaine cartels. Although, these connections paved the way for a great increase in cocaine smuggling into the United States.
In the early 1980s in the U.S., Matta Ballesteros was indicted for running several major cocaine smuggling rings. Matta Ballesteros was one of the narcotics traffickers accused of kidnap in 1985. Also accused of the murder of American DEA agent Enrique Camarena.
The Honduran and American governments arrested him in 1988 at his Honduran residence in a controversial operation. They took him to the United States, where he stood many times for his activities. He had done activities like drug smuggling, helping in the kidnap and murder of Enrique Camarena.
He never regretted murdering Camarena, but he regretted taking part in drug smuggling and kidnapping. The judgment for kidnapping Camarena was overturned in 2017 because of faulty forensic evidence. In 2018, a new trial was ordered, but the prosecutors dropped the charges.
For his drug sentence, he stayed in prison for years at the United States Penitentiary, Canaan. This prison is a high-security federal field in Missouri. He is serving his sentence at the U.S. Medical Center in February 2021.
Early Career
The early life and career details of Matta Narcos are uncertain. He was born in Tegucigalpa as per a family website and was the second of four siblings. So, according to various newspaper sources, Mata as a teenager illegally immigrated to the United States. With different names, he was deported multiple times.
Therefore, he was confined in the federal prison camp in Eglin, convicted for entering the country on a false passport. The authorities of Mexica arrested Matta for selling 10 kg of cocaine in 1974.
Operations of Drug Smuggling
Matta was involved in the operation of major cocaine smuggling in the early 1980s. He was indicted for involving in the role of Van Nuys smuggling in 1984. In 1981, the ring’s discovery resulted in the 114 pounds of Cocaine seizure. It also earned cash of $ 1.9 million.
However, after investigating this case, it was found that the ring had generated $ 73 million within nine months only. Matta was again indicted for a major cocaine smuggling ring in 1985 in Arizona and South California.
Case of kidnapping-murder of Camarena
Matta was first suspected after February 1985 for involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Enrique Camarena. Later he was indicted for his involvement in the kidnapping.
As per Elaine Shannon, the journalist Matta was located in Mexico City after Camarena’s kidnapping for several days. Later, he managed to flee the country as Mexican authorities delayed his arrest. In April 1985, the Colombian government arrested Matta Narcos. But in March 1986, he again escaped from the prison.
Arrest and shifting to United State
The Honduran foundation had forbidden transportation for citizens of Honduran. Honduran government banned requirements of the U.S. to hand over Matta. But the police of Honduras put Matta in prison and place him on an aircraft to Dominical democracy.
The Dominican authorities placed him on air travel towards Puerto Rico along with the United States Marshals. After they have come into the United States country, Matta has been arrested.
The connection between the Guadalajara Cart and Matta Narcos
In configuration Guadalajara Cartel and brokering several deals between Mexico smugglers and Cocaine suppliers and preliminary Mexican smugglers. Juan Matta had played a vital role in the U.S. In the year 1980, Matta Narcos became very wealthy. More than a thousand people used to work in his business.
He also invested in various businesses in Honduras like spice, coffee, tobacco, cattle. At that time, Matta used to earn $ 5 million in a week. He compensated 50 million dollars to the Bolivians to defend his narcotics from the law.
The Popularity of Matta Narcos
Netflix premiered a crime drama TV series named ” Narcos: Mexico”. On the 16th of November 2018, it has produced by Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Mino. This television series is based on Mexico’s illegal drug trade. In this television series, the role of Matta was played by Vladimir Cruz.
The series Narcos Mexico has planned to be the Netflix series 4th season. It got its popularity at an extreme level. Due to this, Netflix premiered its season 2. The ongoing of Guadalajara Cartel has featured in the second season of the series.
However, the people are more excited to know more about Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros. One will get more information about the business of drug smuggling and Matta in this series.
Last lines
Therefore, in this article, one will get lots of information about Matta Narcos. At last, Matta became a billionaire. Throughout the world, everyone wants to know what happened to Matta. The Narcos: Mexico series shows the best biography of the Juan Roman Matta-Ballesteros.