Jury convicts members of Northern California drug trafficking syndicates

By Bay City News

A federal jury convicted three members of syndicates in Northern California for multiple narcotics offenses after just eight days of trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Thursday.

The evidence presented at the trial included calls intercepted between April 2018 and February 2019 as part of a federal wiretap investigation into two drug suppliers in the East Bay, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said in a statement.

Based on the intercepted calls, both suppliers received drugs from sources in Mexico. Federal prosecutors presented evidence of several significant drug seizures, including 8.8 pounds of fentanyl and heroin in May 2018, valued at as much as $1.1 million; 18 pounds of meth in August 2018; and 20 pounds of meth and a kilogram of cocaine in February 2019. Law enforcement also seized more than $300,000 in drug-related cash during the investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

One of the defendants, 38-year-old Luis Torres “Guero” Garcia, was a Humboldt County drug trafficker who received meth shipments on credit from a Fairfield-based drug supplier. Prosecutors said that on Aug. 8, 2018, the Fairfield supplier tried to send about 18 pounds of meth valued at $158,000 to Garcia. But DEA agents and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office intercepted the drug courier and seized the drugs during a vehicle stop on Highway 101 near Healdsburg.

In February 2019, the DEA tracked Garcia to a meeting in Windsor where he delivered about $13,800 in cash to a courier for his drug supplier.

Prosecutors said that although he was present throughout the trial and even listened to closing arguments, Garcia bolted before the jury found him guilty of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, making him a fugitive.

Another one of the convicted drug traffickers, 31-year-old Evan Martinez Diaz, was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

The court found that on Feb. 9, 2019, Diaz was transporting about 20 pounds of meth and a kilogram of cocaine through a neighborhood in Antioch, when he realized he was being followed by law enforcement, which knew about the drugs through the intercepted calls. He began driving erratically, briefly evading law enforcement and directing an accomplice to throw away the drugs in the bushes on a residential street.

Officers later found the drugs, which included $177,860 worth of meth and $40,000 worth of cocaine. After Diaz was stopped by police and released with a traffic citation, he was heard on the intercepted call telling his supplier that he discarded the drugs to avoid arrest after seeing law enforcers.

Meanwhile, Antioch resident Timothy Peoples, 44, was arrested after officers found cocaine in his home. He was charged with two counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Evidence showed that he was a regular customer of an Antioch-based cocaine wholesaler, who sold him some 10.5 pounds of cocaine for more than $120,000 within 90 days.