10-07-2025
International gang leader sentenced to additional 15 months in prison on trafficking charges, feds say
Noel Haro is leader of The Border Brothers, a gang heavily involved in drug, weapons, and human trafficking in Southern Arizona and Nogales, Mexico, according to a statement from Leah B. Foley, US Attorney for Massachusetts.
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The gang also has an influential presence within the Arizona prison system, Foley's statement said.
Haro originally was convicted in Arizona for drug distribution, conspiracy, and money laundering. He was serving his four life sentences there but was transferred to the Massachusetts Department of Correction to finish his term after he was 'deemed a security concern due to his alleged influence over other inmates and repeated introduction of cell phones and narcotics into Arizona facilities,' according to the statement.
Haro was transferred to Souza Baranowski Correctional Center on Jan. 22, 2019, records show.
By April 2019, Haro was under investigation for arranging drug deals while making telephone calls from the prison, Foley's office said.
During those calls, Haro recruited friends and relatives to continue his drug trafficking business and transport narcotics from Arizona to Massachusetts on his behalf, prosecutors said.
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'Even behind bars, Noel Haro continued to direct the operations of an international drug trafficking network and peddle poison into our communities,' Foley's statement said.
In April 2022, the DOC intercepted a letter Haro sent to a co-conspirator in Massachusetts. The envelope contained a 'Get out of Jail Free' card from the board game Monopoly. On the back of it was a handwritten code for discussing drug deals, prosecutors said.
'While locked up for life, Noel Haro thought he had nothing more to lose so he used his 'Get out of Jail Free' card to solicit help in trafficking deadly fentanyl and methamphetamine across the country,' Ted. E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston division, said in the statement. 'Today's lengthy prison sentence shows he could not have been more wrong.'
Prosecutors allege that Haro also had his brother, Marcos Haro, mail narcotics on his behalf.
Three packages that Marcos Haro mailed were intercepted by authorities. One package contained approximately 446.6 grams of 99 percent pure methamphetamine, and the other two each held an estimated 892.3 grams of 86 percent pure methamphetamine and approximately 1,320.2 grams of 95 percent pure methamphetamine, Foley's office said.
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