MAN SENTENCED TO 40 YEARS FOR ROLE IN MURDERS OF COUPLE AND THEIR UNBORN CHILD DURING DRUG TRAFFICKING CONSPIRACY

SAN DIEGO — Benjamin Madrigal-Birrueta, 25, has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for his role in the murders of Cesar Armando Murillo, Maira Sofia Hernandez, and Hernandez’s unborn child during a drug trafficking conspiracy that stretched from the U.S.-Mexico border into Washington state.

Madrigal-Birrueta, a Mexican national who was unlawfully present in the United States and living in Yakima, Washington, admitted through his plea agreement that the killings were carried out while he was participating in a drug trafficking organization. Federal authorities said the organization moved narcotics through San Diego-area ports of entry, transported drugs north for distribution, and sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds back to Mexico.

The violence at the center of the case began on August 28, 2022, at a remote ranch outside Yakima.

According to the plea agreement, Madrigal-Birrueta and his co-conspirators fatally shot 44-year-old Cesar Murillo multiple times in the back of the head and torso during an argument. After Murillo was killed, Madrigal-Birrueta directed his co-conspirators to bury the body in a grave approximately six feet deep beneath a gravel road near the ranch.

Murillo’s death was followed days later by a calculated effort to bring his pregnant wife to the same location.

On September 2, 2022, Madrigal-Birrueta contacted 33-year-old Maira Sofia Hernandez and told her that her husband was waiting at the ranch and wanted to see her. Hernandez did not know Murillo had already been killed and buried there.

Madrigal-Birrueta picked Hernandez up in Yakima and drove her approximately 45 minutes into the mountains. Hernandez was visibly six months pregnant when she arrived.

After reaching the ranch, Madrigal-Birrueta parked the vehicle and the two got out. His co-conspirators then shot Hernandez multiple times in the head and body.

U.S. District Court Judge Dana M. Sabraw described Hernandez’s trip to the ranch as “a one-way ticket for her.”

Hernandez was buried in a separate deep grave beneath a gravel road near the ranch, again at Madrigal-Birrueta’s direction. Her unborn child died in utero as a result of the shooting and killing of Hernandez.

The murders were directly connected to the drug trafficking operation.

Court testimony established that Murillo and Hernandez had worked with Madrigal-Birrueta in the trafficking organization but had informed him that they planned to cooperate with law enforcement. Homeland Security Investigations agents interviewed Murillo and Hernandez in August 2022. Within days of those interviews, both were dead.

That sequence became a critical part of the federal case because the victims were not random targets disconnected from the trafficking enterprise. They had knowledge of the organization, had spoken with federal investigators, and were killed shortly afterward.

During sentencing, Judge Sabraw repeatedly described the murders as “horrific” and said they were “so horrific that they demand a significant sentence.”

The court considered Madrigal-Birrueta’s background, including what the judge described as a “horrible childhood” and his claimed desire to obtain money to help his sisters migrate from Mexico to the United States. Sabraw rejected those circumstances as justification for the killings, stating that “the answer is not to do this” and that Madrigal-Birrueta’s motivation was “wrong on every possible level.”

The court also focused on Madrigal-Birrueta’s conduct after the killings.

According to the sentencing record, he had months to consider what he had done but continued operating within the drug trafficking business. Sabraw said Madrigal-Birrueta and his co-conspirators “executed” Murillo, Hernandez, and the unborn child so Madrigal-Birrueta could “stay in control” and continue running the drug operation.

The court also noted evidence that Madrigal-Birrueta profited from drug trafficking, drove expensive vehicles, used drugs, and oversaw the Yakima ranch where authorities encountered what the judge described as a virtual arsenal of weapons.

The killing of people who intended to cooperate with law enforcement added another serious dimension to the case. The court stressed the devastation inflicted upon the victims’ relatives, telling Madrigal-Birrueta, “It is very clear, the enormity of the stress and damage you have caused to the victims’ families.”

U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said the sentence represented a significant measure of accountability for the victims’ families.

“While here illegally, Benjamin Madrigal-Birrueta chose a life of violence and greed,” Gordon said. “The victims’ families deserved this strong measure of justice.”

Kevin Murphy, acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations San Diego, said the 40-year sentence holds Madrigal-Birrueta accountable for the murders of Murillo, Hernandez, and their unborn child.

Murphy credited HSI special agents and partner agencies with pursuing the investigation across multiple jurisdictions and continuing the search for the victims after their disappearance.

The broader investigation began well before the murders.

According to federal court filings, investigators began seizing drugs from vehicles passing through San Diego-area ports of entry between August and October 2021. The trafficking organization used sophisticated hidden compartments built into high-end stolen vehicles to move narcotics into the United States.

Madrigal-Birrueta held a leadership role within that operation.

He coordinated the movements of drug couriers bringing narcotics into the country and worked to transport those drugs north to Yakima, where they could be distributed to other areas of the United States. He also coordinated the return of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to the trafficking organization in Mexico.

By August 2022, the investigation had expanded from Southern California into Yakima.

The interviews of Murillo and Hernandez occurred during that stage of the investigation. Their murders followed within days.

What came next was an extensive search for their remains.

Court filings describe a year-long investigation involving geophysicists, ground-penetrating radar, aircraft, laser imaging, chemical analysis of soil, numerous cadaver dogs, and other specialized investigative techniques. The remote terrain and the deliberate burial of the victims beneath gravel roads complicated the search.

HSI special agents ultimately recovered the remains of Murillo and Hernandez on September 13, 2023, with assistance from a Washington State Police Crime Scene Investigations team.

The recovery came more than a year after the murders in a case already tied to a major narcotics trafficking network.

Authorities also seized methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl, and multiple firearms from Madrigal-Birrueta’s organization. One of the seized weapons was a machine gun.

The case involved drug trafficking, firearms, interstate distribution, cross-border money movement, witness cooperation, murder, concealment of bodies, and the death of an unborn child.

Madrigal-Birrueta was prosecuted under Case Number 23cr1684-DMS.

Count 4 charged him with the murder of Cesar Armando Murillo in furtherance of a drug trafficking conspiracy under Title 21, United States Code, Section 848(e).

Count 5 charged him with the murder of Maira Sofia Hernandez in furtherance of a drug trafficking conspiracy under the same federal statute.

Count 9 charged him with causing the death of a child in utero under Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1841 and 1111.

Each of those counts carried a mandatory minimum prison term of 20 years and exposed Madrigal-Birrueta to a potential sentence of life imprisonment or death.

The investigation brought together federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies operating across several jurisdictions. Participating agencies included Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Washington State Police, California Highway Patrol, Yakima Police Department, Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, Visalia Police Department, Fresno Sheriff’s Office, and Fresno Police Department.

The case was also handled as part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative, which coordinates federal agencies against criminal cartels, transnational criminal organizations, foreign gangs, human smuggling networks, trafficking organizations, and other cross-border criminal enterprises.

HSTF San Diego includes personnel from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service, Department of Defense, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, IRS Criminal Investigation, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Interpol. The prosecution was led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.

The 40-year sentence marks a major development in a case that began with drug seizures at the southern border, expanded into an interstate trafficking investigation, and ultimately exposed the murders of two people preparing to cooperate with federal authorities and the death of an unborn child.

Murillo and Hernandez were killed within days of speaking with investigators. Their bodies remained hidden beneath remote gravel roads for more than a year before federal agents and their law enforcement partners located and recovered them.

The sentencing now places Benjamin Madrigal-Birrueta in federal prison for four decades for his role in a criminal operation that moved drugs and money across jurisdictions, maintained access to firearms, and ended with three lives lost.

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

🔥 NOW AVAILABLE! 🔥

‎👉 Eclipsera – Apple Music

---

---

---

---

---