Ricardo Mercado-Lozano, Cocaine Trafficking, Michigan 2021

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN – Ricardo Mercado-Lozano, a citizen of Mexico and resident of Greenwood, Indiana, was sentenced to 292 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney for his role as a regional supplier in an eleven-defendant, multistate drug trafficking conspiracy.

The drug-trafficking conspiracy was led in Michigan by co-defendant Andrew Bravo of Battle Creek. Bravo’s drug-trafficking organization distributed kilograms of cocaine and crystal methamphetamine, and quantities of heroin, fentanyl, ecstasy, and kilograms of marijuana, in and around Battle Creek and Kalamazoo between May 2017 and December 2019. Bravo pleaded guilty to the drug-trafficking conspiracy on June 4, 2020, and was sentenced to 264 months in prison on October 5, 2020, by Judge Maloney.

Mercado-Lozano, a self-admitted associate of the Sinaloa cartel, was a regional supplier of kilograms of cocaine and quantities of crystal methamphetamine to Bravo, who further distributed the controlled substances to other individuals in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. In addition to supplying Bravo in Battle Creek, Mercado also supplied drug traffickers around Louisville, Kentucky. On December 17, 2018, investigators stopped a vehicle carrying approximately seven pounds of methamphetamine after leaving Mercado-Lozano’s residence in Kentucky.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge stated, ‘These convictions and sentences are the result of a long-term, multi-agency investigation into the drug trafficking of Andrew Bravo and his co-conspirators, who distributed cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana, among other controlled substances, into the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo communities for years. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to bringing traffickers of dangerous drugs to justice no matter how long it takes. Our local communities are now safer with these individuals off the streets.’

‘HSI special agents specialize in conducting long-term multi-national investigations against some of the most sophisticated criminals on the planet,’ said Homeland Security Investigation’s Special Agent in Charge Vance Callender. ‘This is now the twelfth individual convicted for participating in a now defunct conspiracy to smuggle drugs from Mexico, through California, to western Michigan.’ (A twelfth defendant pled guilty to related charges in California and awaits sentencing there.)

HSI and the Battle Creek Police Department (BCPD) began the investigation into Bravo’s drug-trafficking organization in mid-2017, in partnership with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Michigan State Police (MSP), Emmett Township Police Department, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, St. Joseph Police Department, Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department, Indiana State Police, and Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office.

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