BROWNSVILLE, Texas – A 33-year-old Houston girl was convicted of possession with intent to distribute greater than 5 kilograms of cocaine and conspiracy to take action, introduced the Particular Agent in Cost of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Daniel C. Comeaux of the Houston Division and US Lawyer Alamdar S. Hamdani.
US District Decide Rolando Olvera deliberated for 3 days earlier than sentencing Brenda Banessa Leal on March 7, 2023. The bench trial started on February 27, 2023 and ended on March 1 of 2023.
Decide Olvera now ordered Leal to serve 120 months in federal jail to be instantly adopted by 5 years of supervised launch. Within the ruling, the court docket famous that Leal's testimony at trial was not credible and the proof towards her led to her conviction.
In the course of the trial, the court docket heard proof that since at the very least 2018, Leal assisted a number of relations who have been a part of a drug trafficking group. He helped transport narcotics, primarily cocaine, from Mexico to Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley. The medicine have been hidden within the rear differential within the trailers.
Many members of the group reside in Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon, Mexico the place Leal lived most of his grownup life. He additionally assisted relations in transporting bulk money, ammunition and weapons to Mexico.
The court docket noticed proof of textual content and WhatsApp messages between co-conspirators, jail name recordings and movies detailing Leal's legal actions.
The investigation revealed that between February 2021 and June 2021, Leal was the logistical coordinator of the drug trafficking group. On this function, he coordinated the drivers, distributors and canopy costs on this facet of the border. In June 2021, whereas Leal and co-conspirators have been making ready to unload a tractor-trailer truck containing roughly 33 kilograms of cocaine, the group had the cocaine stolen (“ripped off”) by one other group drug trafficking.
Authorities arrested that group shortly after stealing the cocaine from Leal.
The protection tried to persuade the decide that Leal had no information of the cocaine that was hidden within the trailer and was only a sufferer of the “rip crew.” Decide Olvera didn’t consider these claims and located Leal responsible as charged.
Leal will stay in custody pending switch to a US Bureau of Prisons facility to be decided within the close to future.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS Legal Investigation, US Marshals Service and the Excessive Depth Drug Trafficking Space Process Power carried out the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Process Forces (OCDETF) operation with help of the Texas Division of Public Security. The OECDTF identifies, disrupts and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, cash launderers, gangs and transnational legal organizations that threaten america utilizing a prosecutor-led, multi-agency method intelligence, which leverages the strengths of federal, state and native legislation enforcement companies towards legal networks. Further details about the OCDETF program could be discovered on the Division of Justice's OCDETF webpage. Assistant US Attorneys (AUSA) Alejandra Andrade and former AUSA Ed Rodriguez prosecuted the case.
