Adalberto Fructuoso Comparan-Rodriguez, Methamphetamine Importation, Florida 2021

In a major blow to the global narco trade, Adalberto Fructuoso Comparan-Rodriguez, a/k/a ‘Fruto,’ the former mayor of Aguililla, Mexico and a leader of the United Cartels in Michoacán, Mexico, made his initial appearance in federal court in Miami, Florida today after his extradition from Guatemala.

A South Florida grand jury returned an indictment charging Comparan-Rodriguez with drug trafficking crimes in April 2021.

According to the allegations, in January 2021, Comparan-Rodriguez and Alfonso Rustrian, of Mexico, met in Cali, Colombia with a person they believed to be a money launderer and drug trafficker associated with Hezbollah (‘buyer’). Rustrian explained that Comparan-Rodriguez was a leader of the United Cartels, and that they could supply hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine to the buyer, it is alleged.

They ultimately agreed that Comparan-Rodriguez and Rustrian would send 500 kilograms of methamphetamine from Mexico, through Texas, to the Miami area, according to the charges.

To make the methamphetamine undetectable, members of the organization hid it inside different materials. On March 20, 2021, according to the allegations, a truck carrying concrete tiles filled with methamphetamine arrived in Miami. It is alleged that Adalberto Fructose Comparan-Bedolla, the son of Comparan-Rodriguez, helped crack the concrete tiles open and remove approximately 200 kilograms of methamphetamine from them.

The rest of the meth (over 300 kilograms) arrived in Miami on March 26, 2021, say the court documents. This time, it was dissolved within five-gallon buckets of house paint.

According to the allegations, Comparan-Bedolla and two chemists (Silviano Gonzalez-Aguilar and Salvador Valdez) worked for days inside a warehouse, extracting pure crystal methamphetamine from the paint. Law enforcement agents seized the meth before it hit the streets and made arrests.

On March 30, 2021, Guatemalan authorities arrested Comparan-Rodriguez based upon a provisional arrest request by the United States. The government of Guatemala ordered him extradited based upon an extradition request by the United States.

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