Marco Saucedo, Marijuana Trafficking, Texas 2016

Amarillo, Texas — In a shocking turn of events, Marco Saucedo, 45, of Cactus, Texas, has been sentenced to 48 months in federal prison following a guilty plea in June 2016 to one count of unlawful use of a communications facility, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

According to documents filed in the case, in November 2014, officers with the Cactus Police Department responded to a weapon being discharged at a residence in Cactus that was owned by Guadalupe Reyes, and they determined that the individual who discharged the firearm was renting the property from Reyes. After obtaining consent to search, officers found more than $130,000 in cash inside the residence, which the resident advised was cash that he, at the direction of Reyes and Saucedo, brought back the previous week from Wichita and Topeka, Kansas.

The resident further disclosed he had been working for Reyes for several months, transporting large amounts of marijuana from Amarillo and Fritch, Texas, to other states, such as Kansas and Ohio. He would also transport large amounts of cash – proceeds from the sale of the marijuana – from those locations to the Cactus area, all at the direction of Reyes and Saucedo, who would pay him a set amount for each of the runs he made.

Saucedo was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater, who ordered him to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on November 1, 2016. This comes after Saucedo’s guilty plea in June 2016 to one count of unlawful use of a communications facility.

Marco Saucedo, 45, of Cactus, Texas, was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for his role in a large-scale marijuana trafficking operation. The operation, led by co-defendant Guadalupe Reyes, involved transporting large amounts of marijuana from Texas to other states, as well as transporting cash proceeds back to Texas.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office, and the Cactus Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Long is in charge of the prosecution.

Reyes, 49, of Etter, Texas, who pleaded guilty in June 2016 to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana, is scheduled to be sentenced in mid-November. Reyes faces a statutory penalty of not less than 10 years and up to life in federal prison and a $10 million fine. He remains on bond.

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