Nine accused members of a Jefferson County ring affiliated with a Mexican drug cartel have been indicted on fentanyl trafficking and money laundering charges, including one who was convicted in the horrific 2008 killings of five men in a Shelby County apartment over a cartel debt.

The indictment was unsealed this week in federal court in Birmingham, according to a joint announcement by Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Brad L. Byerley and Homeland Security Investigations Acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard.

Those charged in seven-count indictment are: Juan Francisco Castaneda, aka Pariente, 40; Karol Carlota Del Castillo-Cardozo, aka Guerra, 40, of Wilsonville; Bryant Lamar Reynolds, aka Bear, 37; Preston Omar Chatman, aka Peno, 41, of Birmingham; Jose Lopez Flores, 44, of Birmingham; Cheryl Johnson, 57, of Pinson; and Francisco Del Castillo, aka Paco, 26. All are charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl between March 2022 and March 2023.

The indictment further charges Castaneda, Castillo-Cardozo, Blanca Iris Ozuna, aka Flaca, 35, of Birmingham, and Juan Fidencio Lerma Gomez, 40, with conspiracy to commit money laundering of drug trafficking proceeds between March 2022 and March 2023.

Authorities said the suspects are connected to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is known for its extreme violence.

The Jalisco cartel is known for producing millions of doses of deadly fentanyl and smuggling them into the United States disguised to look like Xanax, Percocet or oxycodone. Such pills cause about 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States, according to a recent CBS News report.

Castaneda, Flores, and Johnson are charged with conspiring to distribute 400 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Castillo-Cardozo, Chatman, Reynolds, and Castillo is charged with conspiring to distribute 40 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.

Castaneda, Castillo-Cardozo, Reynolds, Chatman, Castillo, Flores, and Johnson are also charged with distribution of fentanyl.

Castaneda and Reynolds were already in custody serving state prison sentences.

Castaneda is serving multiple life sentences for murder in the 2008 killings of five men in Shelby County.

Castaneda, his brother and four others were accused of carrying out the deaths of the five victims in a murder for hire over $450,000 in missing drug cartel money.

Authorities say the men were killed by suffocation, stabbing, electrocution or beating.

Their bodies were found at Cahaba Lakes apartments off U.S. 280. Some of the victims’ throats had been slashed, and they had been bound, beaten and shocked.

Castaneda, who is imprisoned at the Bullock County Correctional Facility, pleaded guilty to the crimes.

Reynolds, housed at the St. Clair County Correctional Facility, is serving life for the murder of the father and nephew of a Mobile police captain during a home invasion in Theodore in 2011.

The federal indictment also seeks a money judgment in the amount of $700,000.

“The indictment represents a collaborative effort between multiple federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to combat the scourge of fentanyl trafficking and organized crime in our communities,” Escalona said. “The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force remains committed to stopping the flow of dangerous drugs into our neighborhoods by disrupting and dismantling criminal enterprises.”

The DEA and HSI investigated the case, along with assistance from the Internal Revenue Service, United States Marshals Service, United States Postal Inspection Service, Hoover Police Department, Birmingham Police Department, Bessemer Police Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Alabama Department of Corrections, and Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Allison Garnett and Blake Milner are prosecuting the case.

“The DEA is committed to defeating the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and bringing to justice those members responsible for the trafficking of fentanyl and other dangerous illicit drugs” said DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Towanda Thorne-James.

“This indictment sends a clear message to those that attempt to turn a profit by distributing poison in our communities that they will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” said Pickard, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) operations in Georgia and Alabama. “Our community is a much safer place thanks to the tireless efforts of all our federal, state and local partners.”