A man killed by Mexican authorities was identified as one of 13 Guatemalan nationals believed to be part of a cocaine trafficking organization based along the Guatemala–Mexico border, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California said on June 16.

Baldemar Calderon-Carrillo, known as “Don Valde,” was killed in a shootout with Mexican state police on June 8. He was the lead defendant in a May 2019 indictment by U.S. prosecutors.

U.S. agents are still investigating the details of 67-year-old Calderon-Carrillo’s death, of which videos taken by bystanders have been circulating in Latin American news outlets and on social media.

In the incident, Mexican state police killed four alleged members of a drug trafficking organization near the Guatemalan border and then pursued more suspects into the Central American country in armored police vehicles and engaged in a shootout in the streets of the Guatemalan border town of La Mesilla. The other men killed have not been identified.

The cocaine trafficking organization is based in the Guatemalan town of La Mesilla, near the Mexican border town of Comitlán.

Others charged in the indictment include Calderon-Carillo’s sons: 43-year-old Walfre Donaldo Calderon-Calderon, known as “El Teniente Jr.,” and 45-year-old Edgar Yovani Calderon-Calderon, known as “Panon.”

Edgar Yovani was arrested in Paris in January 2023. He pleaded guilty in February to international cocaine distribution conspiracy charges after his extradition to the United States in March 2024.

In his plea agreement, Edgar Yovani confessed that between at least 2017 and May 31, 2019, he conspired to distribute cocaine in Guatemala and elsewhere, with reasonable cause to believe his cocaine would be trafficked into the United States.

Edgar Yovani acknowledged that he worked to distribute vast amounts of cocaine in Guatemala on behalf of a drug trafficking organization. The cocaine was then trafficked to co-conspirators along the Guatemala–Mexico border, through Mexico, and then into the United States.

Edgar Yovani, who was sentenced to 87 months in prison, also revealed that the conspiracy involved no less than 550 kilograms of cocaine.

All other defendants in the indictment remain on the loose. They face multiple charges, with maximum penalties of life in prison.

According to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Los Huistas drug trafficking organization is the primary criminal structure in the Guatemalan city of Huehuetenango. The office designated Los Huistas as a drug trafficking organization in March 2022.

Los Huistas has imported precursor chemicals from China to manufacture methamphetamine, and then smuggles its cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin from northern Guatemala to the United States via two Mexico-based cartels—the Sinaloa cartel and the Cartél de Jalisco Nueva Generación.

“Criminal groups such as the Los Huistas DTO contribute to instability in Guatemala and the region,” Brian E. Nelson, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said at the time. “Treasury and our U.S. and Guatemalan government partners will continue to use every available resource to dismantle these criminal networks.”

In 2019, Eugenio Darío Molina López, who runs Los Huistas operations, was indicted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on multiple drug trafficking charges.

He is currently at large.

“Molina is responsible for the trafficking of multi-ton quantities of cocaine from South and Central America into Mexico, ultimately destined for the United States,” the U.S. Department of State said in a statement.

The department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has tied Molina to three separate incidents that took place off the Guatemalan Pacific Coast. They include a 461 kilogram seizure of cocaine, a 2,268 kilogram seizure of 30 bales filled with cocaine, and an 823 kilogram seizure eight days later. HSI has also tied Molina and his Los Huistas group to multiple bulk cash and cocaine seizures in the region.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.