Three Methamphetamine Dealers Sentenced In San Jose
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Jorge Alejandro Sanchez Jimenez, and Francisco Ortiz, were each sentenced today to ten years in prison, for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, and Macario Jimenez-Corona was sentenced to seven years in prison for attempting to possess methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it, announced United States Attorney Melinda Haag, Homeland Security (HSI) Acting Special Agent in Charge Tatum King and Drug Enforcement (DEA) Acting Special Agent in Charge Bruce Balzano.
According to the government’s sentencing memorandum filed with respect to Sanchez Jimenez, Sanchez Jimenez had previously worked as a “runner” for a major methamphetamine (Ademar Becerril, a/k/a Fredi Becerril, who was separately prosecuted in Case No. 13-CR-00798-RMW), and then sometime in mid-2013 Sanchez Jimenez split off and formed his own small organization. On June 1, 2015, Becerril was sentenced to over 16 years in prison.
According to his plea agreement, Sanchez Jimenez, 24, distributed methamphetamine in 2012 and 2013 using another person to deliver the drugs and collect cash for (a runner). As part of his operation, Sanchez Jimenez rented a room in an apartment in San Jose that was used as a location to prepare drugs for delivery. Pursuant to court orders, law enforcement officers intercepted Sanchez Jimenez’ telephone conversations and observed his runner at the apartment. In September 2013, HSI agents searched the rented room and discovered digital scales, plastic containers, packaging material, a scale, rubber bands, approximately $4500 in cash, and handwritten notes which were a form of homemade accounting to track amounts owed by customers, listing the customers and the amounts owed. HSI and DEA agents then intercepted telephone calls in which Sanchez Jimenez indicated he had lost two pounds of drugs. He also indicated where the drugs were hidden. The agents returned to the room, removed an electric heater mounted along the floor of one wall, and found a hole in the wall. Inside the hole, they found approximately 1.2 kilograms of methamphetamine. Sanchez Jimenez fled to Mexico in September 2013, according to the plea agreement. He returned to the Bay Area and was arrested on March 3, 2014. He has been in custody since that date.
According to his plea agreement, Ortiz, 25, delivered methamphetamine on behalf of Becerril in 2013. On December 1, 2013, Ortiz was delivering methamphetamine when one of the other delivery persons, Arturo Cuevas-Quezadaz, was arrested with approximately 7.9 kilograms of methamphetamine. The next day, Ortiz was arrested at a restaurant in San Jose. He has been in custody since then. The agents also seized over $26,000 that Ortiz had delivered to Becerril and a list of drug customers and quantities that they were to receive. (Arturo Cuevas-Quezadaz, who is charged in the same case, pleaded guilty and is set for sentencing in July 2015.)
According to the government’s plea agreement with Jimenez-Corona, 49, on December 1, 2013, Jimenez-Corona was waiting to receive approximately three kilograms of methamphetamine from Arturo Cuevas-Quezadaz. Jimenez-Corona was in a car parked next to the car driven by Arturo Cuevas-Quezadaz, in a parking lot in San Jose when police officers arrested Cuevas-Quezadaz and seized the approximately 7.9 kilograms of methamphetamine he was transporting. Jimenez-Corona was released after being questioned by the officers. He was arrested the next day and has been in custody since then.
The sentences imposed on Francisco Ortiz and Macario Jimenez-Corona were handed down by the Honorable Ronald M. Whyte, U.S. District Judge. Jorge Alejandro Sanchez Jimenez was sentenced by the Honorable Edward J. Davila, U.S. District Judge. Ortiz and Sanchez Jimenez were each sentenced to a 5 year period of supervised release in addition to their prison terms. Macario Jimenez-Corona was sentenced to a 3 year period of supervised release in addition to the term of prison.
These cases are the products of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force investigating and prosecuting the most significant drug trafficking organizations throughout the United States by leveraging the combined expertise of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
