Fort Worth cocaine trafficker gets 20 years after cash found in air bag

A Fort Worth man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after authorities — with the help of a drug dog — found $58,000 in cash in an air bag of a truck he was driving.

Josimar Badillo-Oritz, 29, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge John McBryde on a federal charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. He pleaded guilty to the charge in November.

Badillo-Oritz’s co-conspirators, Joel Gonzalez-Oviedo, 25, and Juan Carranza-Moreno, 31, both of Fort Worth, are scheduled to be sentenced on March 25. They pleaded guilty to the same charge as Badillo-Oritz, and each man faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In 2015, Gonazalez-Oviedo supplied cocaine to Badillo-Oritz who distributed the drug, federal agents said. Badillo-Oritz did not deal directly with Gonazalez-Oviedo, instead contacted Carranza-Moreno who acted as the broker between the two, according to federal court documents.

Authorities conducted a traffic stop on Sept. 15, 2015 after investigators observed a truck leave a suspected drug stash house in Fort Worth.

Gonzalez-Oviedo was the driver and Carranza-Moreno was a passenger, federal agents said. During the stop, a drug-sniffing dog alerted authorities and they obtained a probable cause warrant to search the vehicle, finding $58,000 in cash in an air bag.

Days later, Badillo-Oritz was arrested at the suspected Fort Worth drug house. He told federal authorities that he had met with Carranza-Moreno and another man on Sept. 15 and paid $58,000 for two kilograms of cocaine.

Arlington police and agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case.

This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Fort Worth cocaine trafficker gets 20 years after cash found in air bag."