The ‘King of Coca -coca’ of San Diego sentenced by drug trafficking

A San Diego drug trafficker who described himself as the “King of Coca -Cola” and that prosecutors said he recruited the Hitmen Mexico Cartel to act as executors in San Diego was sentenced Monday to 17 years and six months in a federal prison.

Rodolfo “Rudy” Benjamin Silva, 44, previously declared himself guilty of a conspiracy charge to distribute controlled substances, admitting that he trafficked in cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl, according to his guilt agreement. Silva admitted as part of his plea that “he made a credible threat to use violence or directed the use of violence against at least another” person. “

“Silva helped bring murderers known as Mexico’s ‘hitmen’ to the San Diego area for posters compliance operations,” said the United States prosecutor in the San Diego area in a statement, citing arguments made Monday in court by the assistant lawyer of the United States Ashley Goff. “On one occasion, Silva hired a hitman from Mexico to come to San Diego, where that individual tried to firing one of Silva’s rivals.”

Few details about that shooting were included in publicly available judicial documents. But at the beginning of last year, a federal magistrate judge denied Silva’s request for release prior to the sentence, citing the shooting as a reason. Judge Barbara Major wrote that, according to what the prosecutors had argued, Silva “directed the shooting of another person in the San Diego area that was associated with a stolen drug load and used a hitman in Mexico to make that attempt.”

Major wrote that prosecutors had also argued that Silva “otherwise helped to facilitate similar application operations in the United States and Mexico for posters.” And she wrote that prosecutors had presented evidence that Silva sells firearms to individuals in Mexico.

Defensor lawyer Gretchen von Helms told Union-Tribuno that Silva has mental health problems that were revealed to the judgment judge, US district judge William Hayes, in a sealed presentation. The defending lawyer said she recommended a 10 -year sentence based on those non -specified mental health problems and Silva’s lack of criminal record for similar crimes. Prosecutors recommended a 20 -year sentence.

The judge “was below the government’s recommendation because he had never fulfilled time in jail before the arrest in this case and for the problems (mental health),” said Von Helms, but imposed a significant sentence due to the conduct to which he declared himself guilty.

According to Major’s order keeping Silva in custody last year, prosecutors described him as a “prolific distributor of methamphetamine, cocaine and local and national fentanyl with Mexican posters.” A very drafted criminal complaint indicated that federal authorities identified Silva as a large -scale drug distributor during a broader long -term investigation they were carrying out.

As part of that investigation in October 2022, the federal agents who made surveillance observed how an alleged drug course based in Indianapolis that led San Diego visited Silva’s residence and collected a large cardboard box, according to the criminal complaint. Days later, the police authorities arrested the alleged messaging service in Oklahoma and found 114 pounds of methamphetamine and around 2.2 pounds of fentanyl in the service vehicle.

Later, Silva admitted that he was the source of those drugs, prosecutors said.