Sinaloa Cartel weapons supplier sentenced in San Diego to nearly 20 years

A "prolific firearms trafficker" who federal prosecutors say provided guns and ammunition to the Sinaloa Cartel was sentenced in San Diego Monday to nearly 20 years in prison.

Keith Octavio Rodriguez Padilla, 39, of Rialto, acquired rifles, submachine guns, pistols and grenade launchers for the Valenzuela Transnational Criminal Organization, or TCO,  which the U.S. Attorney's Office described as "a significant component of the Sinaloa Cartel" and "one of the largest importers of cocaine into the United States."

Some of the weapons and ammo was purchased in the United States, then smuggled into Mexico through the ports of entry in San Diego and Arizona, according to prosecutors, who say Rodriguez Padilla was identified as an arms trafficker during a long-running investigation into the TCO.

That investigation has led to charges against 109 people, along with major seizures of weapons, cash and drugs. One such seizure conducted in 2020 at an Otay Mesa truck yard run by the TCO resulted in the discovery of around 20,000 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition, which prosecutors say Rodriguez Padilla purchased for the TCO.

Rodriguez Padilla was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2021 and later pleaded guilty to charges that include conspiracy to smuggle goods.