ATLANTA —Eight drug traffickers, including a Texas parolee, were sentenced last week to federal prison for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.
“These defendants thought that their drug trafficking operations would go unnoticed in Clayton County neighborhoods,” said U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. “They were wrong. Due to the outstanding efforts of DEA agents and their local law enforcement partners, these traffickers are off our streets and headed to federal prison.”
These are the facts and circumstances surrounding this case, according to officials:
- Around 2012, Candido Ortuno Alvear, who was on parole in Texas for a cocaine trafficking offense, moved to the Atlanta, Ga. area to set up a methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution organization.
- Alvear recruited his then 19-year-old son, Victor Ortuno-Penaloza, brother-in-law Vicente Arana Galvan, cousin Tomas Sanchez Juarez, and associate Pablo Maldonado Penalosa to carry out the day-to-day operations of the organization.
- The organization rented several “stash houses” in Clayton County, Ga., which were used to manufacture, store, package, and distribute large quantities of methamphetamine.
- Alonso Alfonso Rivera, who resided in Forest Park, served as a methamphetamine distributor for the organization.
- On January 18, 2013, agents observed Maldonado Penalosa meet with Robert Dale Penland at the Maple Avenue residence in Morrow, to provide Penland with a quantity of methamphetamine.
- After Penland departed the residence, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop of Penland on Interstate 75 in Henry County, Ga., and found about 10 pounds of “ice” methamphetamine under the back passenger seat.
- Penland was traveling in the vehicle with his wife and ten-month-old grandson, who had in fact accompanied Penland into the garage of the Maple Avenue residence earlier that day.
- Several days later, on January 22, 2013, Maldonado provided Octavio Cruz Albar with a quantity of methamphetamine outside of the Maple Avenue residence.
- Law enforcement conducted a traffic stop of Albar, who was traveling in a taxi, and located approximately two pounds of “ice” methamphetamine inside a shoebox where Albar had been seated.
- The investigation revealed that Juarez had manufactured the seized “ice” methamphetamine in the Needle Drive residence in Forest Park, in coordination with Alvear, Ortuno-Penaloza, and Galvan.
- Later that evening, agents executed federal search warrants at the Maple Avenue and Needle Drive residences, and located methamphetamine and methamphetamine processing materials inside both houses.
- Agents also executed a search warrant at Rivera’s Brian Court residence, in Forest Park arrested Rivera, and located a 9mm Beretta 92FS handgun under a couch cushion.
The following arrests were made by law enforcement:
- Agents arrested Juarez and Ortuno-Penaloza in a nearby motel and Galvan, Alvear, and Maldonado in a residence on Kennesaw Drive in Forest Park.
- Candido Ortuno Alvear, 40, of Forest Park, Ga., was sentenced to 21 years and ten months in prison.
- Victor Ortuno-Penaloza, 21, of Forest Park, Ga., was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison.
- Vicente Arana Galvan, 44, of Morrow, Ga., was sentenced to ten years and eight months in prison.
- Tomas Sanchez Juarez, 27, of Forest Park, Ga., was sentenced to twelve years and seven months in prison.
- Pablo Maldonado Penalosa, 30, of Forest Park, Ga., was sentenced to nine years in prison.
- Octavio Cruz Albar, 29, of Atlanta, Ga., was sentenced to six years and six months in prison.
- Robert Dale Penland, 55, of Asheville, NC., was sentenced to eight years and five months in prison.
- Alonso Alfonso Rivera, 31, of Forest Park, Ga., was sentenced to ten years in prison
- In addition to the methamphetamine conspiracy charge, Rivera was sentenced on the charge of possession of a firearm by an alien illegally and unlawfully in the United States.
All defendants were convicted of the above charges upon their pleas of guilty last year.