Imurias Machado Treviño pleaded guilty to leading a crew that abducted, beat and — at least in one case — murdered drug dealers in Hidalgo County.

The group, which took its orders from a convicted Zetas lieutenant in Reynosa, has been linked to seven abductions across the area, a weapons cache uncovered in Mission and a broad-daylight shootout at a San Juan medical plaza in 2008.

Known within the ring as “Comandante Tomate,” Machado, 30, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

One of his accomplices, Leovaldo “Malacara” Osvaldo Herrera Alvarez, 38, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal attempted kidnapping charges.

Five other men’s cases in the kidnapping ring remain pending in U.S. District Court.