St Louis Drug Trafficker Gambled Away $1.5M Owed to Sinaloa Cartel, Lived to Tell the Tale

A St. Louis drug trafficker who gambled away more than $1.5 million belonging to Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa Cartel has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

Derek Rockette, 53, pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to distribute cocaine and fentanyl, money laundering conspiracy, and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.

The father of three admitted participating in a drug operation from at least 2016 through 2021. According to federal prosecutors, the Sinaloa Cartel supplied him with large quantities of cocaine and fentanyl on credit, expecting him to kick up the proceeds.

However, between 2017 and 2021, Rockette gambled away the proceeds owed to the cartel, one of the world’s most feared criminal organizations. Rockette spent the next two years trying to climb out of the hole.

Visit from the Cartel

According to prosecutors, Sinaloa Cartel representatives traveled to St. Louis to confront him over the debt, after which he made a series of six-figure repayments through sophisticated Chinese and Mexican money-laundering networks.

Prosecutors said the Chinese laundering network disguised drug proceeds by depositing the money into an account used to pay credit-card charges for airline tickets sold in China, a form of trade-based money laundering.

According to the indictment, the amount Rockette owed fluctuated as he made repayments while continuing to receive fresh drug shipments on credit from the cartel.

Some cash payments were intercepted by federal agents, while others were funneled through Chicago or deposited into U.S. bank accounts before being transferred to Mexico.

Flight From Police

When agents approached Rockette on March 25, 2019, prosecutors said he was “gambling in the street,” according to court documents. He ran, attempted to discard a Glock 9 mm pistol, and was found after his arrest to be carrying more than $10,000.

As a felon previously sentenced to five years for a marijuana-trafficking conspiracy, he was barred from possessing the weapon.

Two years later, St. Louis police stopped Rockette’s vehicle and found about $2,000 in cash, 236.26 grams of cocaine, 3.56 grams of fentanyl, and 12.4 grams of a mixture containing cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl, according to prosecutors.

The government argued that Rockette should not be compared with co-defendants who served mainly as couriers or recipients of cash.

“Very few drug traffickers in St. Louis have direct connections to the Sinaloa Cartel,” prosecutors wrote while making the argument for the maximum sentence permitted under Rockette’s plea agreement.