Los Zetas assassin gets 7 life sentences

Marciano Millan Vasquez guilty on murder, drug, weapons, trafficking charge

Courtesy: John Davenport/ San Antonio Express-News

SAN ANTONIO – A high-ranking member of the Los Zetas drug cartel in Piedras Negras was sentenced Wednesday in a San Antonio federal courtroom to seven consecutive life sentences in connection with numerous murders and drug and weapons trafficking in northern Mexico.

Trial testimony revealed that Marciano Millan Vasquez, 34, was responsible for the murders of at least 29 people from January 2009 and July 2015.

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Vasquez killed a young girl in 2013 by dismembering her with an ax and burning her body in front of her parents while laughing and saying, "so you’ll remember me,” according to trial testimony. Vasquez then ordered that the mother be killed in similar fashion while forcing the father to watch. Vasquez then ordered the father killed. According to testimony, Vasquez made the father watch the slayings because he and other Los Zetas members wanted the father to suffer.

“Without mercy or compunction, he brutally murdered anyone and everyone as it suited him and his cartel," U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin said. "At times inflicting the cruelest of pain, forcing relatives to watch their loved ones murdered before he turned his blades on them. Today’s sentence marks an end to his reign of terror over the drug plaza in Piedras Negras."

Testimony also revealed that as the “Plaza boss” in Pedras Negras, he oversaw the importation and distribution of more than 100,000 kilograms of marijuana, tens of thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the United States and obtained and distributed firearms amongst Los Zetas members.

Vasquez also personally distributed multi-kilogram quantities of methamphetamine into the United States, Durbin said.

He was found guilty in July 2016 following a three-week trial.

Vazquez has been in federal custody since his arrest in San Antonio in July 2015.

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About the Author:

David Ibañez has been managing editor of KSAT.com since the website's launch in October 2000.