A Las Cruces man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in a heroin trafficking ring that operated in Doña Ana County, New Mexico.
Patrick Gonzalez, 40, was sentenced to 216 months in prison for his conviction on heroin trafficking and firearms charges. He will also serve five years of supervised release following his incarceration.
Gonzalez was one of 21 people arrested as part of a multi-agency investigation led by the FBI into the heroin trafficking activities of Jovita Belmonte-Gonzalez, a 45-year-old Mexican national from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
B Belmonte-Gonzalez was named as the lead defendant in four of the five indictments filed against the group in November 2013. She pleaded guilty to heroin trafficking charges in four of the five cases in June 2014 and admitted to conducting frequent heroin transactions with her co-defendants between June 2013 and October 2013.
Court records show that Belmonte-Gonzalez typically negotiated heroin sales by telephone from Juarez and her co-defendants traveled from Doña Ana County to Juarez to purchase the heroin from her and later distributed the drugs in Doña Ana County.
The investigation, which was designated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, resulted in all 21 defendants entering guilty pleas. Nineteen defendants have been sentenced, while Belmonte-Gonzalez and one other defendant await sentencing hearings.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Renee L. Camacho, of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office. The investigation was led by the Las Cruces office of the FBI in collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Border Patrol, the Las Cruces office of the DEA, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Las Cruces Police Department and the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office.
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Key Facts
- State: New Mexico
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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