The Government's Position, As Per Court Records

7/27/2019 The Government's Position, As Per Court Records

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This is what prosecutors had to say in court:The Indictment in this case stems from DEAs Multiplicityinvestigation, which dismantled the domestic cocaine distributionoperations of Jesus Hector Flores and his employees andconvicted several large-scale cocaine customers includingSamuel Coronado-Espindola and others. The present Indictmentfocuses on the Mexico-based supervisors of the Floresorganization and the sources of supply of the cocaine customersthey serviced. The investigation traced the Multiplicity wiretaps toa Mexican cocaine trafficking organization led by Edgar Valdez-Villarreal, a.k.a. La Barbie, and established that Valdez-Villarreals organization was the source of more than 1,500kilograms of cocaine sold to the Atlanta customers identified onthe Multiplicity wiretaps.In the early to mid-2000s, Valdez-Villarreal transitioned frombeing a local distributor of cocaine in his home town of Laredo,Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to become the distributor oflarger loads of cocaine to regional distributors in the UnitedStates. Valdez-Villarreal ultimately connected with higher-levelcartel operations led by Arturo Beltran-Leyva, while continuing todevelop cocaine distribution in Mexico and to U.S. distributors.


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During this period, Valdez-Villarreal entered into an arrangementwith Carlos Montemayor Gonzalez, a.k.a El Director, whodeveloped a network to transport the organizations cocaineacross the border into Laredo and process cash proceeds thathad been smuggled across the border into Mexico. CarlosMontemayor eventually formed a loose partnership with Valdez-Villarreal, in which they pooled their resources to buy cocaine inMexico. While they maintained their own customers, they begansharing cocaine sources of supply and networks to transport thecoke into the United States. According to witness interviews andintercepted Title III conversations, Valdez-Villarreals primarylieutenant overseeing the day-to-day operations in Mexico Citywas Ruben Hernandez, a.k.a. El Secre or Super, and CarlosMontemayors primary lieutenant was Roberto Lopez, a.k.a.Shrek.In 2004, Carlos Montemayor arranged with Jesus Hector Flores,a.k.a. Cain, to oversee the domestic operations that related toCarlos Montemayors customers in the southeast: receivingcocaine loads, distributing the drugs to Carlos Montemayorscustomers, and collecting and processing the bulk cash paymentsfor transportation back into Mexico. Carlos Montemayor begansending truckloads of cocaine to Floress workers in Memphis,


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where the workers met the trucks at empty warehouses andstored the cocaine and drug proceeds in a rented stashhouse. Meanwhile, Valdez-Villarreal and Hernandez continued tosend truckloads of cocaine to Valdez-Villarreals customersthrough more traditional means, with the deliveries being madedirectly to the customers themselves.In the spring of 2005, Carlos Montemayor asked Flores to expandhis operations to include the organizations customers inAtlanta. Flores dispatched Romero Roel Martinez, akaCachillos, to Atlanta in March 2005, and Martinez rented a stashhouse located on Johnson Road in Southwest Atlanta. Martinezwas later joined by Luis Trevino, Roberto Garcia, and JoeLopez. Carlos Montemayor and other supervisors in Mexicocalled Martinez or Flores to advise when truckloads of cocainewere to arrive in Atlanta. The Atlanta workers met the trucks atempty warehouses and transported the cocaine to the stashhouses, and distributed the cocaine upon the authorization of andaccording to the orders of the cartel supervisors. The workersalso picked up, counted, and packaged the bulk currency paid bythe cartel customers. They delivered the currency to the truckdrivers on their way back to Texas to be smuggled toMexico. Throughout this process, Martinez and the other


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workers reported on a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis toFlores, who remained in Laredo.From that time until their arrest in November 2005, the Atlantaworkers received, on average, 100 kilograms of cocaine two tothree times a month, for a total of approximately 1,500 kilogramsof cocaine. One witness recalled participating in approximately15 shipments with several shipments sometimes occurring on thesame day. According to the witness, the largest load was 300kilograms with the smallest load being 55 kilograms.Sometime that summer, Valdez-Villarreal agreed to rely on theservices of the Flores organization as well. While theyendeavored to keep the cocaine supplies and cash proceedsseparate, both Valdez-Villarreal and Carlos Montemayor and theirlieutenants paid Flores and his group to accept shipments ofcocaine, make deliveries to customers as directed, and collectcash payments.The defendant, Juan Montemayor, is Carlos Montemayorsbrother. Juan Montemayor served as the primary contact for oneof the organizations more significant customers located inAtlanta, Manuel Coronado-Espindola, who the Court may betterremember under his alias of Edwar Valencia-Gonzalez. Title III


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wiretaps intercepted dozens of conversations between JuanMontemayor and Coronado-Espindola regarding orders of up to100 kilograms of cocaine, and the collection of cash proceeds inpayment for the cocaine. Juan Montemayor also communicatedon an irregular basis with Flores and Martinez, and he providedthem with instructions regarding the deliveries of cocaine to andthe collection of payments from Coronado-Espindola. Finally,Juan Montemayor assisted with the processing of kilograms ofcocaine after they arrived in Mexico for transportation to theUnited States border.To establish these facts, the government would introduce at trial,among other evidence: (1) lawfully intercepted telephoneconversation between Juan Montemayor, Coronado-Espindola,Hector Flores, and workers in the Atlanta stash house, (2)testimony by other co-conspirators who would identify JuanMontemayors voice on the intercepted calls and his role in theorganization; (3) surveillance by special agents of the operationsof the Atlanta workers at two different stash houses in thesummer and fall of 2005, and (4) seized cocaine, money, andrecords that would corroborate the interceptions and cooperatortestimony.As specific examples, the government would establish that:


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Coronado-Espindola accepted delivery of 60 kilos of cocaine fromthe Atlanta stash house workers on or about June 22, 2005, and40 kilograms on or about July 2, 2005.On July 18, 2005, the workers in Atlanta had 215 kilograms ofcocaine in a stash house.On August 14, 2005, the Atlanta workers delivered 50 kilogramsto Coronado-Espindola and picked up $825,000 in cash proceedsto pay for a prior delivery;On August 17-18, 2005, agents seized $2.5 million in bulkcurrency that was secretly delivered to a truck driver in a parkinglot behind a closed warehouse, and was hidden inside the tractorcab, to be delivered to the organization in Mexico as payment forcocaine deliveries. The seized cash included the $825,000 thathad been delivered by Coronado-Espindola three days earlier,which is confirmed by handwritten notations designating the cashas payments by 84 which was a code number for Coronado -Espindola;On November 15, 2005, agents executed a search warrant at theAtlanta stash house, located at 5040 in Erin Road, Atlanta, in theNorthern District of Georgia, and seized 120 kilograms of cocaineand $1.5 million in U.S. currency.


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Documents

The Government's Position, As Per Court Records