SAN DIEGO (CN) — Life was grim for a U.S. citizen who spent nearly six years in a Mexican prison for gun running, and it’s not likely to get better in the United States, where he pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to finance a cross-border drug tunnel.
Habib Sayb Mujica, 35, of Calexico faces 20 years in federal on each of two charges: conspiring to launder money and conspiring to finance and use the tunnel, plus $750,000 in fines.
Mujica admitted in his plea agreement that he conspired to finance and build the unfinished tunnel discovered in Calexico in 2011, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
He admitted that $340,173 in cash was deposited in bank accounts to rent a warehouse at 361 W. Second St. in Calexico, and to rent the machines and tools used to build the tunnel.
He admitted he planned to operate a business called Baja Bikes, as a front for the tunnel, and that he arranged rental of a horizontal directional drilling machine, alignment tools, pipes, level tripod, a jackhammer, drills, electric saws, forklift hydraulic lift, air compressors and tool boxes, prosecutors said.
Mujica was deported from Mexico in May this year after spending nearly six years in prison for gun trafficking, then arrested in the United States. He will be sentenced on Nov. 27.
He also faces sentencing in a 2001 federal indictment on charges of gun running and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
