He worked at a Central Kentucky restaurant and Calumet Farm. And he led local drug cartel.

A Mexican drug cartel’s local “cell leader” who formerly operated out of Scott County has been sentenced to 31 years in prison.

Before Friday’s sentencing, Ciro Macias Martinez, 33, had pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Martinez and his common-law wife, Brizeida Janet Sosa, handled millions of dollars and large quantities of meth, cocaine and heroin through their former residence on Robin Road south of Georgetown. Drugs were sold and proceeds eventually were returned to Mexico. Before his arrest in 2017, Martinez worked as a cook at Jalapeno’s restaurant and also worked at Calumet Farm in Lexington while Sosa worked as a waitress, according to court records.

Brizeida Sosa testified Friday that one time she wired a $12,000 deposit to an account in China, which is a major source of the painkiller fentanyl that is funneled into Mexico and then the United States. The account number came from a Mexican cartel boss, who passed it to Martinez.

After that deposit, the bank contacted Sosa and “asked if I was a terrorist,” she testified in court. “I was pregnant at the time and asked ‘Why would I be a terrorist?’”

Nevertheless, the bank canceled her account, citing that she made too many suspicious deposits. Banks are required to file a “currency transaction report” when an individual makes a cash deposit exceeding $10,000. Banks also file a “suspicious activity report” when they notice unusual activity in an account, such as when large cash deposits go into an individual’s account and are then wired to different countries.

While under DEA surveillance, Martinez was seen delivering $990,000 to an undercover agent, $575,000 to another defendant in the drug conspiracy and $298,000 to a third defendant in the conspiracy, according to court records.

Policed seized $575,440 in cash during a November 2016 search of a tractor-trailer parked at the Horse Park Travel Center/Shell gas station on Iron Works Pike, according to a DEA agent’s affidavit filed in court.

The truck driver admitted to the DEA agent and others that he was a contract drug-money courier who was working for an organization in southern Texas, the affidavit said.

The driver said he was “fully aware the money was in fact drug money and that he had just picked the money up from a Hispanic male he did not know a few miles from where he had been stopped,” the affidavit said.

Based on surveillance, investigators knew the person who dropped off the money to the driver was Martinez, the affidavit said.

Martinez must serve 85 percent of his sentence, and after completing his time, he will face deportation to Mexico.

“I’d like to apologize to all the people I harmed when I did these things outside the law,” Martinez said through an interpreter at his sentencing. “May God give you many blessings” he told U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves.

Several others have pleaded guilty to their roles in the money laundering, which involved banks in Tennessee and North Carolina. The deposits totaled $100,000 or more on each trip.

Arlene Sosa, 23, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in federal prison. Laura Ortiz, 23, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years. Smirna Ortiz, 21, was convicted at trial in July and will be sentenced in November. She faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

Brizeida Sosa pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to distribute meth and conspiracy to commit money laundering. She is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

This story was originally published October 1, 2018 at 11:46 AM.