“After Hours”, the operation that dismantled a cell of the Sinaloa cartel in Michigan

Authorities United States dismantled a drug distribution network from the Sinaloa Cartel, whose operations spanned Battle Creek and Kalamazoo in Michigan, and arrested 12 people linked to the organization that manages Ismaël Zambada García, the Mayo.

Through the operative After hours, the Drug Enforcement Administration (to give) and Michigan State Police began investigating this criminal cell in mid-2017.

And this July 12, the Western District of the entity where the crimes occurred sentenced the last of the accused, Ricardo Mercado Lozano, also known as Heriberto Diaz Lozano and / or Eddie Diaz.

This subject, Mexican and resident of Greenwood, Indiana, was sentenced to 292 months in prison by the Federal District Judge Paul L. Maloney, period equivalent to 24 years four months. According to investigations, Mercado Lozano was the regional supplier to the criminal cell which covered several states.

In Michigan, he operated André Bravo of Battle Creek, who was also charged with drug trafficking conspiracy. This subject distributed cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as heroin, fentanyl, ecstasy and marijuana in Battle stream Yes Kalamazoo and its surroundings between May 2017 and December 2019.

Bravo pleaded guilty to the charges a year ago, on June 4, 2020, and was sentenced to 264 months behind bars on October 5 by Judge Maloney himself.

Authorities have confirmed that Mercado Lozano was an admitted member of the Sinaloa cartel and shipped the drug to Andrew Bravo, who in turn distributed it to designated cities in Michigan. But their drug trafficking operations also included leaders of Louisville, Kentucky.

After nearly a year and a half of investigations, police and DEA officers arrested a vehicle carrying at least 3.17 kilograms of methamphetamine on December 17, 2018. The car had left the home of the partner of the Mayo Zambada and Kentucky.

In 2015, Mercado Lozano had been deported to Mexico after serving five years in prison for kidnapping in Riverside, California. This was how suspicions about him grew, but until then the extent of his criminal networks with one of the most powerful and oldest cartels with links across five continents had just been discovery.

“These convictions and sentences are the result of a long-term investigation by several agencies into the drug trafficking of Andrew Bravo and his co-conspirators, who distributed cocaine, crystalline methamphetamine, ‘heroin, fentanyl and marijuana, among other controlled substances, in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo for years, ”US Attorney Birge said of the case.

The operation included the Battle Creek Police Department, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Agency, Michigan State Police, Emmett Township Police Department, Security Department Kalamazoo Public Police, California Police Department, St. Joseph, Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department, Indiana State Police, and Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office.

“This is now the twelfth person convicted of participating in a now-defunct conspiracy to smuggle drugs from Mexico, via California, to western Michigan,” the Special Agent for Investigations said. homeland security, Vance Callender.

A twelfth defendant has pleaded guilty to related charges in California and is awaiting conviction there, but his identity has not been disclosed.

“We will continue to work to ensure that the criminals who traffic in these poisons and wreak havoc in our communities suffer the consequences of their criminal activities,” said the special agent in charge of to give, Keith Martin.

Since December 2019, when the arrests and searches began, investigators have seized quantities of cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, crystalline methamphetamine, over 50 pounds of processed marijuana and over 300 marijuana, as well as plants. , other controlled substances, three or more firearms. $ 50,000 in pharmaceutical revenues.

The nine other defendants and their convictions are: Mark Anthony Mosley sentenced to 200 months from prison; Christopher Michael Dreams, 168 months; Rodney C. Compton, Jr., 100 months; Erineo Wallace, 60 months; Troy Edward Bush, 120 months; Stacey Parcell Gibson, 84 months; Wayne Henry Hawley, 120 months; Cory Karl Cadieux, 37 months; while Jeremiah E. Smith has already served his prison sentence and has been on probation for a year.

According to DEA data, the Sinaloa Cartel It is present in up to 50 cities in the United States. It is one of the most consolidated transnational criminal organizations and whose top leader, the Mayo Zambada, has never been to prison for at least four decades in the field of drug trafficking.

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