ATLANTA – The feds said a high-level drug trafficker who was extradited to the United States from Mexico late last year, has pleaded guilty to federal drug charges in connection with the importation of large quantities of cocaine from Mexico to metro Atlanta.
This week, Orfael Macedo Bustos, 52, of Guerrero, Mexico, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and possession with intent to distribute cocaine after a federal grand jury indicted him in December 2018. In November 2025, Macedo Bustos was extradited from Mexico to the Northern District of Georgia, and he has been in federal custody since that time.
According to U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg, the charges, and other information presented in court: Beginning in 2017, federal law enforcement identified a drug trafficking organization that was importing large quantities of cocaine from Mexico into the United States. Macedo Bustos, one of the organization’s leaders and primary drug suppliers, coordinated with others to transport cocaine, usually via tractor trailers, to the metro Atlanta area for distribution.
During the investigation, federal authorities said they seized at least five large shipments of cocaine from tractor trailers, including 44 pounds of cocaine in October 2017 in Fulton County, Georgia; 30 pounds of cocaine in November 2017 in Fulton County, Georgia; 44 pounds of cocaine in February 2018 in Fulton County, Georgia; 33 pounds of cocaine in April 2018 in Cobb County, Georgia; and 22 pounds of cocaine in November 2018 in Fulton County, Georgia.
Macedo Bustos faces at least ten years of imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
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