Month: August 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

PORTLAND, Ore.—A Mexican National residing in Portland was sentenced to federal prison today for supplying large quantities of methamphetamine and heroin to a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization operating in the Portland Metropolitan Area.

Eduardo Barbosa Lopez, 44, also known as Barbas, was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison and five years’ supervised release.

According to court documents, beginning in 2018, two men, Samuel Diaz and Faustino Monroy, organized, led, and ran a drug trafficking organization, based in Mexico, responsible for trafficking hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine and heroin into Oregon for distribution. Diaz and Monroy worked closely with associates who ran a Portland distribution cell, which, at its peak, was responsible for distributing as much as 77 pounds of methamphetamine and 55 pounds of heroin weekly in and around Portland.

Barbosa, whose documented history of drug trafficking includes multiple felony convictions spanning nearly two decades, served as one of Diaz and Monroy’s most prolific sources of supply for methamphetamine and heroin in the Portland Metropolitan Area. Barbosa was directly involved in smuggling drugs from Mexico into Oregon where they were processed and prepared for sale at stash houses throughout the metro area. A large network of local drug dealers would then distribute user quantities of each drug. The organization would routinely change stash locations, rotate vehicles and phones, and pay individual couriers to take time off to avoid detection by law enforcement. To conceal his individual role in the conspiracy, Barbosa used multiple cell phones and false passports, lied to law enforcement about his identity, and successfully thwarted an effort to track the movement of his vehicle.

Diaz and Monroy leveraged relationships with the operators of Tienda Mexicana González Bros., a small convenience store and market in Southeast Portland, to launder millions of dollars in drug proceeds. Between January 2015 and October 2019, the organization laundered at least $19 million dollars through the market. In July 2021, one of the operators of the market, Jesus González Vazquez, was sentenced to 132 months in federal prison for his role in the conspiracy.

In October 2019, Barbosa and many of his co-defendants were arrested as part of a coordinated, multi-agency law enforcement operation. Investigators executed federal search warrants at more than a dozen locations throughout the Portland area, seizing approximately 22 pounds of methamphetamine, quantities of heroin and cocaine, and seven firearms. Law enforcement also seized 51 firearms, including assault rifles, shotguns, and handguns, from defendants affiliated with the Diaz-Monroy organization.

On October 24, 2019, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a 61-count superseding indictment charging Barbosa and 41 others for their roles in the drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy. Later, on November 5, 2019, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a separate, one-count indictment charging Barbosa with illegally reentering the United States after being deported for a felony offense. On April 5, 2022, he pleaded guilty to both charges.

Barbosa is the thirty-second defendant sentenced for his role in the conspiracy.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Portland and the Gresham Police Department with assistance from the FBI; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; Oregon State Police; Portland Police Bureau; and the Multnomah, Clackamas, and Clark County Sheriff’s Offices. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

CHICAGO — A federal judge has sentenced a Chicago-area firearms trafficker to ten years in prison for unlawfully dealing handguns and “switch” devices capable of converting semi-automatic firearms into machine guns.

In September 2020, LEONARD D. JOHNSON supplied at least four “switch” devices, also known as “Glock switches,” to an individual who later sold them to a confidential informant and an undercover law enforcement officer.  The individual and Johnson then split the proceeds.  In December 2020, law enforcement executed a court-authorized search of Johnson’s residence in Robbins, Ill., and discovered 117 “switch” devices and three handguns that had been converted into machine guns, as well as another handgun, a silencer, three extended magazines, and ammunition.

Johnson was arrested in December 2020 on a federal firearm charge.  He violated his conditions of pre-trial release while continuing to traffic firearms in 2021.  He later fled to Georgia, where he was arrested in March 2022.

Johnson, also known as “Scrap,” 34, pleaded guilty in June 2022 to one count of unlawfully dealing firearms and one count of illegal possession of a machine gun.  U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall imposed the ten-year prison sentence on Aug. 25, 2022.

The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Kristen de Tineo, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.  Valuable assistance was provided by the Lansing, Ill., Police Department and the Midlothian, Ill., Police Department.

“Defendant was a prolific machine gun dealer in the Chicago area,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles W. Mulaney argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum.  “Glock switches are a prevalent danger in this community that have no purpose other than to inflict maximum damage on enemies and any innocent bystanders who get caught in the spray of bullets.”

Disrupting illegal firearms trafficking is the focus of the Department of Justice’s Chicago Firearms Trafficking Strike Force.  As part of the strike force, the U.S. Attorney’s Office collaborates with ATF and other federal, state, and local law enforcement partners in the Northern District of Illinois and across the country to help stem the supply of illegally trafficked firearms and identify patterns, leads, and potential suspects in violent gun crimes.

Holding firearm offenders accountable through federal prosecution is also a centerpiece of Project Safe Neighborhoods.  In the Northern District of Illinois, U.S. Attorney Lausch and law enforcement partners have deployed the PSN program to attack a broad range of violent crime issues facing the district, particularly firearm offenses.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Gulfport, Miss. – A Gulfport man was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca and Special Agent in Charge Brad L. Byerley of the Drug Enforcement Administration.  

Broderick Demond Kelley, 44, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Gulfport.

According to information presented to the Court, on March 22, 2022, law enforcement officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle that was being driven by Broderick Demond Kelley.  During the stop, officers located user amounts of suspected methamphetamine, synthetic marijuana, and MDMA.  They also located a Rossi .38 caliber revolver.

Kelley was taken into custody and admitted to purchasing the firearm two weeks before the stop.  Kelley was on parole at the time of the stop.  Kelley had two prior felony burglary convictions.

The DEA and Gulfport Police Department investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Buckner prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.