Date: Nov. 21, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov A methamphetamine trafficker with ties to the CJNG cartel was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton. Adriana Melendez-Calvillo, a citizen and national of Mexico illegally present in the United States, was charged via criminal complaint in February 2023 and pleaded guilty in November 2023 to a criminal information charging conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and money laundering. She was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr. According to court documents, in September 2022, agents intercepted a call between Ms. Melendez and a co-conspirator during which they discussed logistics for a drug transaction. Agents then followed Ms. Melendez’s vehicle to a fast food restaurant, where she met with coconspirators David Garcia and Omar Gilliam, who appeared to transfer something from Ms. Melendez’s back seat to the trunk of their vehicle. Agents then followed Mr. Gilliam’s vehicle to a gas station, where he removed a grey duffle bag from his trunk and placed it into a third vehicle. Police subsequently pulled over that vehicle for traffic violations; inside the duffel, they found plastic baggies containing 4,886 grams of methamphetamine. In plea papers, Ms. Melendez admitted that she arranged for the transfer of that meth. At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, an agent testified that Ms. Melendez had ties to Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a notorious transnational drug trafficking organization. Text messages introduced into evidence at sentencing suggest Ms. Melendez received shipments of meth, cocaine, and other drugs directly from sources of supply in Mexico, and prosecutors noted she electronically transferred $828,094 in proceeds to individuals in Mexico. Ms. Melendez also admitted to attempting to transfer bulk amounts of U.S. currency to Mexico, including $104,750 that was seized by law enforcement. Evidence further revealed that Ms. Melendez was involved in the trafficking at least 1,000 pounds of cocaine, 41 kilograms of methamphetamine, and 7.8 kilograms of ice methamphetamine. Mr. Garcia pleaded guilty in November 2023 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and is slated to be sentenced in January. Mr. Gilliam was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and awaits trial. Three other defendants in the case, Juan Pablo Guerra, Gerardo Campos Garcia, and Fatima Garcia, have entered guilty pleas; three more, Hilario Zamago, Ignacio Manzo-Cardenas, and Luis Manuel Abarca Torres, are also awaiting trial. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation with the Richardson Police Department, the Hickory Creek Police Department, the Dallas Police Department, the Greenville Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the U. S. Postal Inspection Service, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations Section. Assistant U.S. Attorney George Leal is prosecuting the case. This operation 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, multiagency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks. IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
