Family man and auto shop owner, or cartel "coordinator"?

CHICAGO -- Who is Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez? Was he a Los Angeles auto body shop owner who made one big drug deal, or was he the logistical mastermind behind hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal narcotics reaching the United States? It is a question a federal judge tried to settle Monday in Chicago.

In 2009, the U.S. government charged Vasquez-Hernandez with drug trafficking. He was charged along with 12 others in Mexico; including Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa cartel. The main witnesses against Vasquez-Hernandez were two cartel members turned confidential informants for the DEA. They told federal investigators that Vasquez-Hernandez was a life-long friend of Guzman and was godfather to one of Guzman's children. The informants claimed that Vasquez-Hernandez organized trains, planes, automobiles, boats, and even submarines, to transport illegal drugs for the cartel.

Working with the DEA, one of the informants secretly taped Vasquez-Hernandez. On the tape, Vasquez-Hernandez discussed details of a 276 kilo shipment of cocaine from Los Angles to Chicago by train. In court yesterday, Vasquez-Hernandez took responsibility for the shipment and apologized to the Unites States and asked forgiveness.

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Vasquez-Hernandez's lawyer asked for a minimum sentence for his client saying the 59 year-old former small business owner had no criminal record, drove a 10 year-old car, and was a good family man. The lawyer also said there wasn't one bit of evidence his client ever met with "Chapo" Guzman.

The prosecutor described Vasquez-Hernandez as the "logistical coordinator for the Sinaloa cartel" who oversaw an elaborate drug smuggling operation and was "not a novice trafficker."

Federal District Court judge Robert Castillo observed that the defense wanted the court to believe that Vasquez-Hernandez all of a sudden got up one day in Mexico and decided to get involved in a Sinaloa cocaine smuggling operation. The judge declared that notion was "nonsensical." The judge said Vasquez-Hernandez was "like a Mister X" with both defense and prosecution giving their version of who the defendant really was.

Judge Castillo said the "specter" of Joaquin Guzman would not enter into his sentencing decision. But the judge wanted the defendant to know, that "on behalf of all Chicago," he would hold the 276 kilos of cocaine against him. The judge said, "We are tired of drug trafficking that continues to hurt this city and this country."

Had the U. S. government proved Vasquez-Hernandez was the transportation brains behind the Sinaloa cartel, the defendant could have been sentenced to life imprisonment. Lacking that proof, judge Castillo sentenced Vasquez-Hernandez to 22 years in federal prison for his involvement in the 276 kilo shipment of cocaine. The judge also ordered that Vasquez-Hernandez be deported to Mexico after he completes his prison term.

Doug Longhini is a "48 Hours" producer.