Drug trafficker sentenced to 70 months in 2 conspiracies

LAREDO, Texas — The fourth of 20 defendants convicted in a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute in excess of 1,000 kilograms of marijuana and money laundering has been ordered to prison, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, Southern District of Texas.

The sentence resulted from a long-term Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation dubbed Operation “Trena Sin Trono” led by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, with assistance from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Laredo Police Department and Zavala County Sheriff’s Office.

Juan Manuel Vargas-Aguilar, aka “Chacalilla,” 46, of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, previously pleaded guilty for his role in two separate drug conspiracies. U.S. District Marina Garcia Marmolejo sentenced Vargas-Aguilar June 2 for a conspiracy spanning June 10, 2011 to June 4, 2013, and for a second conspiracy that occurred Oct. 4, 2014. Judge Marmolejo consolidated the cases for sentencing and ordered Vargas-Aguilar to serve 70 months in federal prison.

Vargas-Aguilar is a not a U.S. citizen and will be placed in removal proceedings once he’s completed his prison sentence.

In the first conspiracy, Erasmo Trejo-Nava was the head of a drug trafficking organization where he received marijuana loads from Mexico and arranged to transport the marijuana to the Dallas area. The organization used various stash houses and business fronts in the Laredo area to receive and prepare the marijuana for transportation via personal vehicles to a local warehouse where it was unloaded and reloaded onto tractor trailers.

Vargas-Aguilar was identified as a worker for the organization who assisted with virtually anything. He constructed wooden crates for the transportation of marijuana, re-wrapped the drugs, received loads at a local warehouse, assisted at stash houses along with other workers, and conducted counter surveillance at stash houses and during the transportation of the narcotics.

Vargas Aguilar was implicated in the transportation of four separate loads of marijuana for the Trejo-Nava drug trafficking organization totaling 6,022 kilograms.

A total of 20 defendants were convicted in the Trejo-Nava conspiracy. A federal jury convicted Rafael Ortega, aka Tio, 57, of Laredo, and Baltazar Ibarra-Cardona, 55, of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Ortega and Ibarra-Cardona were each ordered to serve 120 months in federal prison earlier this year. Erika Alvarez, 39, also of Nuevo Laredo, who was identified as Trejo-Nava’s niece and pleaded guilty to the money laundering conspiracy, received a sentence of 48 months. The court further issued a final order of forfeiture against Alvarez in the amount of $171,240.

The remaining 17 defendants had previously pleaded guilty and are also awaiting sentencing.

The following defendants pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana and conspiracy to launder drug proceeds: Erasmo Abdon Trejo-Nava, 44; Jose Angel Trejo, 43; Ovidio Rodriguez, 42; Victor Hugo Trejo-Nava, 42; Francisco Colin, 42; and Salvador Saldaña-Medrano, 37, all of Laredo; Jaime Enrique Montalvo-Ruiz, 45, of Nuevo Laredo; and Leocadio Ruiz, 48, of Dallas.

The following four defendants pleaded guilty to the conspiracy: Mario Albert Rodriguez, 30, and Ricardo Ramirez, 34, both of Laredo; Arturo Lozano, 48, of Dallas; and Joshua Sanchez, 33, of Nuevo Laredo.

Gerardo Moreno Recio, 49, of Nuevo Laredo, was convicted of two separate counts of possession with intent to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana, while Laura Heredia Garcia, 51, of Nuevo Laredo, and Raquel Margarita Ramos Jimenez, 45, and Leslie Bernice Trejo, 23, both of Laredo, entered pleas of guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder drug proceeds.

Following the arrest of Trejo-Nava June 4, 2013, Vargas-Aguilar moved on to work for another organization. He was arrested Oct. 4, 2014, along with Julio Cesar Valdez-Casas at a ranch in North Laredo on Mines Road. CBP Border Patrol agents had observed two vehicles near the area where five unidentified subjects were attempting to load bundles of marijuana weighing a total of 168 kilograms. When agents approached the vehicles, the subjects dropped the drugs and fled to Mexico. Valdez-Casas was one of the drivers and arrested at the scene. Vargas-Aguilar was driving the second vehicle and fled, but was later apprehended. Valdez-Casas, 52, of Nuevo Laredo, was sentenced March 31, 2015, to 60 months in federal prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Lou Castillo, Southern District of Texas, prosecuted the case.