In federal court in Brooklyn, Jair Francisco Patron Tobias, also known as “Crixus,” “Junior,” and “Gannicus,” was arraigned on an indictment charging him with participating in a large-scale narcotics distribution conspiracy and using one or more firearms in connection with those narcotic offenses. The defendant, a Mexican citizen, was arrested in Mexico on a provisional arrest warrant issued from the Eastern District of New York and transferred from Mexico to the United States on January 20, 2026. This proceeding was held before United States Magistrate Judge James R. Cho. The defendant was ordered detained pending trial.
Patron Tobias was among 37 Mexican nationals who were transferred to the United States from Mexico yesterday to face a range of federal criminal charges around the country.
Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Frank A. Tarentino, III, Associate Chief of Operations, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Northeast Region (DEA), and Anthony Chrysanthis, Special Agent in Charge, DEA, Los Angeles Field Division which oversees the Las Vegas District Office (DEA), announced the arraignment.
“As alleged in the indictment and court filings, the defendant was one of the lead drug distributors for a vicious cartel responsible for sending massive quantities of dangerous drugs into the United States,” stated United States Attorney Nocella. “This arraignment in a U.S. courtroom is the first step in holding him accountable for his serious crimes and the immense harm that he has caused. Our Office is working with federal and international partners to dismantle drug cartels and prosecute high-level drug traffickers responsible for flooding our country with dangerous drugs that leave death in their wake.”
Mr. Nocella thanked the DEA’s offices in Mexico City, Mexico and New York, the United States Marshals Service, the United States Department of State, the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, and the Government of Mexico for their invaluable assistance.
“Once again we see the power of collaboration between our DEA’s offices, the HSTF, and our law enforcement partners in holding accountable those who traffic illicit narcotics while using violence, intimidation, and fear as a means to push their poison into American communities” stated DEA Northeast Regional Associate Chief of Operations Tarentino. “The DEA is committed to targeting those drug trafficking organizations and individuals, like Jair Francisco Patron Tobias, who are responsible for causing the most harm. This is the DEA’s focus, both here and abroad, and we will continue this fight until we have a drug-free America.”
“In recent years and through today, our country has suffered one of the biggest and most destructive drug crisis ever imagined. DEA is tackling this problem head on, and with urgency. Working in conjunction with national and international partners, we are intent on dismantling these violent global drug networks. They unleash poison onto our streets, lining their pockets with no regard to human suffering. Make no mistake, the heads of these drug emporiums will be held accountable. Today’s indictment of an alleged narcotics kingpin is just one example of more to come,” stated DEA Los Angeles Special Agent in Charge Chrysanthis.
According to the indictment and other court filings, the defendant was a lead distributor for the H-2 Drug Trafficking Organization (the H-2 DTO), a violent Mexican drug trafficking organization based in Nayarit and Sinaloa, Mexico. The H-2 DTO was previously led by the defendant’s father, Juan Francisco Patron Sanchez, also known as “H-2,” who was killed in 2017. After Juan Francisco Patron Sanchez’s death, his brother Jesus Ricardo Patron Sanchez (the defendant’s uncle) assumed principal leadership over the H-2 DTO. The H-2 DTO had numerous distribution cells in the United States, including in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Ohio, Minnesota, and North Carolina. The DEA estimates that between January 2013 and February 2017, the H-2 DTO distributed, on a monthly basis, hundreds of kilograms of heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine, as well as thousands of kilograms of marijuana, into the United States and earned millions of dollars in illegal proceeds in return. The H-2 DTO used firearms and physical violence in furtherance of its drug trafficking operation.
Between June 2013 and December 2016, the defendant directed the distribution of large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana from Mexico throughout the United States, including the Eastern District of New York. The defendant also coordinated money laundering activities of the H-2 DTO to ensure the proceeds of their drug trafficking were transferred back to Mexico. The defendant worked closely with his father and uncle to expand the H-2 DTO’s power and territory by prohibiting rival drug trafficking organizations from manufacturing heroin.
This prosecution is also part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of U.S. law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.
The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, the defendant faces up to life in prison.
The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Nomi D. Berenson, Raffaela S. Belizaire, and Andrew D. Wang are in charge of the prosecution.
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