Kirk Castor, Methamphetamine Trafficking, New Mexico 2023

Kirk Castor, 37, of Kirtland, N.M., was sentenced to 37 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his conviction on a methamphetamine trafficking charge in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M.

Castor was one of eight San Juan County residents charged with federal narcotics trafficking offenses as the result of a multi-agency investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the HIDTA Region II Narcotics Task Force into methamphetamine trafficking on the Navajo Indian Reservation in northwestern New Mexico.

The investigation was initiated in response to an increase in methamphetamine trafficking on the Navajo Indian Reservation in the Shiprock area. The investigation identified eight defendants, who are charged in five indictments, through a series of methamphetamine purchases by undercover law enforcement officers.

Law enforcement authorities seized more than two and a half pounds of methamphetamine, ten firearms, approximately $1,600 in cash and a vehicle during an arrest operation on May 11, 2016.

Castor was arrested on an indictment charging him with distributing methamphetamine on April 1, 2015 and April 3, 2015, in San Juan County, N.M. On Oct. 14, 2016, Castor pled guilty to the indictment and admitted that on April 1, 2015, he sold .7 grams of methamphetamine to an undercover officer, and on April 3, 2015, he sold 42 grams of methamphetamine to an undercover officer.

The HIDTA Region II Narcotics Task Force is comprised of officers and investigators from the Farmington Police Department, San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, Bloomfield Police Department, Aztec Police Department and HSI Albuquerque, and is part of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program. The HIDTA program was created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988.

The investigation was designated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, which combines the resources and unique expertise of federal agencies, along with their local counterparts, in a coordinated effort to disrupt and dismantle major drug trafficking organizations.

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