El Paso Man Pleads Guilty to Heroin Trafficking in NM

GRIMY TIMES EXCLUSIVE: Fernando Gomez-Campos, 21, of El Paso, Texas, has pleaded guilty in federal court to a heroin trafficking charge. The charges stem from an alleged conspiracy involving the distribution of approximately 2.67 kilograms of heroin between El Paso and Albuquerque, N.M.

Gomez-Campos was one of five defendants charged in a 13-count indictment filed on December 2, 2015, which also named Gonzalo Montenegro-Coronel, Esther Ordonez, Miguel Ordonez, and Reydecel Lopez-Ordonez. The group is accused of participating in the heroin trafficking conspiracy from November 2014 to September 2015.

Today’s plea agreement reveals that Gomez-Campos was found with the heroin on October 13, 2015, while he was en route from El Paso to Albuquerque. He also admitted being paid to transport a similar amount of heroin from Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso and then onto Albuquerque in April 2015.

Should Gomez-Campos be sentenced as per the mandatory minimum, he could face ten years behind bars, with life in prison as the maximum penalty. His sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Lopez-Ordonez, who pleaded guilty on October 19, 2016, faces his own set of penalties when he is sentenced on March 30, 2017. He will serve a minimum of five years and a maximum of 40 years in prison, with over $10,000 in drug proceeds to be forfeited.

The remaining three co-defendants have entered not guilty pleas and await trial. This case was investigated by the DEA’s Albuquerque office as part of the OCDETF program, a collaborative effort aimed at dismantling major drug trafficking organizations.

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