Heroin Trafficker Pleads Guilty in Doña Ana County

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A Mexican national and Las Cruces resident pleaded guilty to heroin trafficking charges in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., today.

Jovita Belmonte-Gonzalez, 43, of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, entered guilty pleas in four separate cases involving heroin trafficking in Doña Ana County.

Belmonte-Gonzalez, along with her co-defendant Nathan Andrew Maestas, 31, of Las Cruces, pleaded guilty to heroin trafficking and firearms charges in one of the four cases.

According to the indictment, Belmonte-Gonzalez supplied heroin to four drug trafficking organizations that were distributing heroin in Doña Ana County. She admitted conducting frequent heroin transactions, including transactions involving hundreds of grams of heroin, with her co-defendants between June 2013 and October 2013.

Belmonte-Gonzalez faces a mandatory minimum of ten years in prison and a maximum of life in prison. She has been in custody since her arrest on November 15, 2013, and remains detained pending her sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

Maestas pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He admitted conspiring with Belmonte-Gonzalez and others to distribute heroin in Doña Ana County between June 4, 2013, and October 27, 2013.

Maestas will be sentenced to 72 months in federal prison followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court.

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