A leader of what authorities described as a massive methamphetamine-distribution conspiracy tied to a Mexican drug cartel told undercover officers he had previously stopped supplying the D.C. region with drugs because of a lack of demand, according to court documents. Alberto Garcia Calderon and eight other illegal immigrants have been indicted in federal court in the District and are accused of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and other drugs in the Washington region.
Authorities say they are connected to the Mexican drug cartel La Familia.
Calderon, 36, and 25-year-old Esteban Almontes Rodriguez are identified in court papers as the leaders of the drug ring.
Over the past month, undercover D.C. police officers met with them several times to discuss purchasing large amounts of narcotics, according to a court affidavit.
Rodriguez repeatedly said La Familia was the source of his supply, the affidavit says.
Court documents and authorities said the drug ring was run out of Atlanta and Winston-Salem, N.C., and wanted to set up a D.C. operation.
In raids conducted last week, authorities seized more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine worth more than $3.5 million, as well as $118,000 worth of cocaine, $49,500 in marijuana, and more than $35,000 in cash.
The affidavit says a Georgia house was used as a drug lab, where authorities found crystal and liquid methamphetamine, drug ledgers, digital scales and packing materials.
Eight people in the ring were arrested in Georgia and North Carolina and will be brought to D.C. for prosecution. They are Calderon, Rodriguez, Alejandro Quintana Cardenas, Moises Ramirez-Perez, Alfonso Martinez-Cruz, Jesus Bustos-Penaloza, Felipe Alvarado-Ponce and Sergio Garcia-Virelas.
The final defendant, who is identified only as Jorge because his last name is unknown, is still at large.
In one meeting, undercover officers met with Rodriguez and Cardenas at a North Carolina Applebee’s restaurant to buy a kilogram of cocaine for $33,000, according to court records.
That night, the officers also met with Calderon and “spent a total of three to four hours talking about future plans for narcotics distribution in the District of Columbia area,” the affidavit says. That’s when Calderon told them “he was the previous supplier in charge of distribution in the District of Columbia but has since moved for lack of business.”
Officials said the arrests have prevented the drug cartel from infiltrating the D.C. region.
“These arrests and seizures cut off a pipeline for trafficking dangerous narcotics from Mexican drug traffickers into the Washington, D.C., area and along the Northeast corridor,” said Ronald C. Machen, U.S. attorney for D.C.
