A San Diego drug trafficker who described himself as the “king of coke” and who prosecutors said recruited Mexican cartel hitmen to act as enforcers in San Diego was sentenced Monday to 17 years and six months in federal prison.
Rodolfo “Rudy” Benjamin Silva, 44, previously pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, admitting that he trafficked in cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl, according to his plea agreement. Silva admitted as part of his plea that “he made a credible threat to use violence or directed the use of violence against at least one other” person.
“Silva assisted in bringing assassins known as ‘sicarios’ from Mexico into the San Diego area for cartel enforcement operations,” the San Diego-area U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement, citing arguments made Monday in court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley Goff. “On one occasion, Silva hired a sicario from Mexico to come to San Diego where that individual attempted to fatally shoot one of Silva’s rivals.”
Few details about that shooting were included in publicly available court documents. But early last year, a federal magistrate judge denied Silva’s request for pre-sentencing release, citing the shooting as one reason. Judge Barbara Major wrote that, according to what prosecutors had argued, Silva “directed the shooting of another individual in the San Diego area who was associated with a stolen load of drugs and utilized a hitman from Mexico to make that attempt.”
Major wrote that prosecutors had also argued that Silva “otherwise assisted in facilitating similar enforcement operations in the United States and Mexico for cartels.” And she wrote that prosecutors had presented evidence of Silva selling firearms to individuals in Mexico.
Defense attorney Gretchen von Helms told the Union-Tribune that Silva has mental health issues that were disclosed to the sentencing judge, U.S. District Judge William Hayes, in a sealed filing. The defense attorney said she recommended a 10-year sentence based on those unspecified mental health issues and Silva’s lack of a criminal history for similar crimes. Prosecutors recommended a 20-year sentence.
The judge “went below the government’s recommendation because he had never served time in jail prior to the arrest in this case and because of the (mental health) issues,” von Helms said, but he imposed a significant sentence because of the conduct to which he pleaded guilty.
According to Major’s order keeping Silva in custody last year, prosecutors described him as a “prolific local and national methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl distributor since at least 2018 with direct ties to Mexican cartels.” A heavily redacted criminal complaint indicated that federal authorities identified Silva as a large-scale drug distributor during a wider long-term investigation they were conducting.
As part of that investigation in October 2022, federal agents conducting surveillance watched as an alleged Indianapolis-based drug courier who drove to San Diego visited Silva’s residence and picked up a large cardboard box, according to the criminal complaint. Days later, law enforcement authorities stopped the alleged courier in Oklahoma and found 114 pounds of methamphetamine and about 2.2 pounds of fentanyl in the courier’s vehicle.
Silva later admitted that he was the source of those drugs, prosecutors said.
