A Mexican citizen who authorities say hired drug couriers for a crime ring that distributed cocaine in Indiana and Ohio was sentenced Monday to more than 16 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker sentenced Danny Delgado, 24, to 200 months in prison, according to U.S. Attorney Timothy M. Morrison.

Delgado organized truck drivers to deliver cocaine for a trafficking organization based in El Paso, Texas, according to a statement from Morrison’s office.

Delgado, who lived in the border town of Juarez, Mexico, near El Paso, helped the organization ship about 50 kilograms of cocaine each week to Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Akron, Ohio, in 2006 and 2007, authorities said.

Because Delgado is a citizen of Mexico, authorities said he will be deported after he completes his prison sentence.