I Was Set Up by a Cartel. Now I’m Going to Federal Prison

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Nine years after a chance encounter on a flight to Las Vegas, Niki Burke is just two weeks away from reporting to federal prison.

Her story begins in 2017, when Niki boarded a flight from Florida to Las Vegas with two friends. A well-dressed man from Indiana sat next to them, and midway through the flight, they struck up a conversation. He offered to buy them drinks, paying with $100 bills, and they kept in touch after landing. Over the course of the trip, he paid for limousine rides, expensive dinners, gambling and extensions to their hotel stay.

The friendship continued after Vegas. Eventually, the man told Niki he was starting a home-goods distribution company and offered her the opportunity to help build and run it. The business would source inexpensive products from Mexico and distribute them across the United States.

Niki accepted. She moved to South Texas, found a warehouse and began operating the company. The man financed the venture, but most of the business was put in her name. Niki says she spent her days managing operations, solving problems and learning how to run a business. She was proud of what they were building and believed it could become her future.

Then, one day, she received a call.

A semi-truck registered in her name had been seized at a checkpoint. Inside, authorities found more than 20 kilograms of cocaine worth approximately $1.5 million.

Niki says the man and the truck’s driver suddenly stopped responding to her. She later learned that federal agents believed the man had connections to a Mexican cartel.

More than a year later, Niki received a text claiming someone had found her friend’s missing purse at a mall. When she arrived to collect it, federal agents were waiting. Niki says she was placed in an unmarked vehicle, interrogated for approximately five hours and taken into federal custody.