Fernando Auces, Interstate Drug Conspiracy, Ohio 2023

Ohio Prison-Run Drug Ring Busted

A 30-count federal indictment was unsealed charging 13 people with participating in a multi-state conspiracy to distribute heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, a conspiracy which was controlled by an inmate inside an Ohio prison, law enforcement officials said.

The indictment charges Fernando Auces, 50, currently residing at Grafton Correctional Institution, with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, among other charges. Auces, while an inmate at Allen Correctional Institute in Lima, Ohio, with the assistance of Almazan and others, controlled a multi-state drug operation by communicating through a contraband cell phone with others outside the prison to arrange the delivery and sale of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, according to the indictment.

Between 2010 and 2014, Auces and others arranged for deliveries of large amounts of heroin to Ohio from suppliers in Indiana and Texas. He recruited friends and relatives, including Almazan, De La Rosa, Sanchez, Ulis, King, Jimenez and Koelblin to receive and distribute the heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine to Cleveland, Toledo and elsewhere, according to the indictment.

Auces, as part of the conspiracy, agreed with Gonzales, an inmate at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, to share customers and drug suppliers. Auces arranged for Gonzales to distribute drugs to various locations throughout Ohio, including Cleveland, Akron/Canton, Dayton and Cincinnati, according to the indictment.

The indictment also names Ricardo Morales-Almazan, 32, currently residing at FCI Big Spring in Texas; Alejandro Sanchez, 33, of Toledo; Roberto Agapito Vallejo-Becerra, 50, currently residing at East Hidalgo Detention Center in Texas; Alexander Gonzales, 38, currently residing at Southern Ohio Correctional Institution (Lucasville); Tammy Gibson, 40, of Akron; Javier Jimenez, 39, of Toledo; Noe Reyes, 33, currently residing at FCI Lucero in Alabama; Randy Koelblin, 39, of Cincinnati; Jasmine Reyes, 29, of Omaha, Neb.; Jenneth De La Rosa, 58, of Toledo; Daniel Ulis, 40, of Toledo and Anthony King, 41, currently residing at Ross Correctional Institution (Chillicothe).

The indictment charges the 13 defendants with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Counts 2 through 7 are substantive counts of distribution of methamphetamine or heroin. Counts 8 through 28 deal with the use of communication facility to facilitate a felony. Counts 29 and 30 deal with traveling interstate to distribute heroin. The indictment also seeks to forfeit $37,050 in cash seized from a storage locker in Toledo on April 4, 2014, according to the indictment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vasile C. Katsaros and Christian H. Stickan and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Tomaro of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office following an investigation by the Northern Ohio Law Enforcement Task Force.

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