Dallas cartel group leader sentenced to 16 years for drug, money laundering crimes
The head of a local cell of a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization will spend more than 16 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin, according to a news release from the Justice Department.
Carlos Espinoza Juarez, a 33-year-old Mexican national and leader of the Dallas cell of the Santa Rosa Lima Drug Cartel and other Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations, pleaded guilty in July 2020, according to the news release. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade.
Juarez admitted in his plea to conspiring to traffic drugs and orchestrating a series of drug deliveries over the course of at least four years, spanning from Texas to South Carolina, according to the news release.
In one example from March 2015, the Justice Department says Juarez directed co-defendant Ed Contreras-Diaz to deliver more than $2,600 of heroin to a buyer. Earlier that year, Juarez told co-defendant Heriberto Talamantes-Ceballos to sell 1 ounce of heroin to a buyer for $880.
Juarez admitted to using fake names to wire money to people in Guanajuato, Mexico, as a way to launder the money he made, according to the Justice Department.
Juarez agreed as a part of his plea deal that he will hand over more than $35,000, six firearms, two vehicles and will face deportation proceedings after serving his sentence, the Justice Department said in the news release.
According to the release, seven others have pleaded guilty in connection to this case:
- Adrian Lopez Alalde pleaded guilty to money laundering and was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison.
- Contreras-Dias, aka “Flako,” and Talamantes-Ceballos both pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute heroin.
- Marcos Fernando Valle pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.
- Omar Suarez-Garcia, Bianca Jeannette Martinez and John Paul Sanchez all pleaded guilty to consipracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin.
The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration in Dallas, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Grand Prairie police, Grapevine police, Lancaster police, Dallas police, Haltom City police, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the DEA in Boston and several local, county and state law enforcement agencies in outside Texas, according to the release.
The North Texas Organized Crime Drug Task Force Strike Force led the investigation.