All seven members indicted in September as part of a Prince William County cocaine ring have pleaded guilty or been convicted, with some of those who entered pleas testifying against the two men who took their cases to trial.
A 34-count, 36-page indictment alleged that the drug ring was a major source of cocaine in the county and received its supplies from a Mexican trafficking organization.
Throughout November and December, all seven men charged in the case pleaded guilty or went to trial.
In court documents, prosecutors identified 30-year-old Yasin O. Arreola, who also goes by “Tony” or “El Diablo,” of Catlett, Va., as the leader of the drug ring.
Arreola and two other men who pleaded guilty — Jose S. Lovo, 40, and Kelvin Martinez, 25 — took the stand against 35-year-old Jorge I. Fernandez and 44-year-old Angel Flores, who were both found guilty by a jury in federal court in Alexandria this month.
As part of their plea agreements, the men agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testify in trials and other proceedings if asked.
Peter Carr, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Virginia, wrote in an e-mail that, in the trial, “corroborated testimony from other conspirators helps the jury understand the nature and extent of that conspiracy.”
But Fernandez’s attorney, Frank Nieves-Fernandez, maintained that Fernandez was “unaware of the conspiracy” and was “used by his co-defendants.”
The plea agreements and an affidavit filed in August detail the drug ring’s operations.
Arreola admitted to paying the members a weekly rate to distribute powder and crack cocaine. The drug ring “cut” the cocaine with other substances to increase profit margins. The members spoke in code over the phone in an attempt to avoid detection.
Most of the documented cocaine transactions took place at a Burger King or gas station in Manassas. Arreola and others posed as a construction workers, including driving a white van and wearing a construction vest, to conduct the transactions.
The defendants who pleaded guilty but did not testify against Fernandez and Flores were 20-year-old Isitro Liberato and 42-year-old Manuel Perez Castillo.
All of the men are scheduled to be sentenced on various dates in February.
