DAYTON - Josue Morales-Medina, 41, of Mexico was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 108 months in prison for his role in trafficking heroin laced with fentanyl in the Miami Valley.
Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, members of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Bulk Cash Smuggling Task Force, Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer, Ohio State Highway Patrol Colonel Paul A. Pride, announced the sentence handed down yesterday by U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Rose.
According to court documents, Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers stopped a vehicle in which Morales-Medina was a passenger on I-75 in Dayton in November 2015 for a traffic violation. Morales-Medina had approximately $298,000 in cash from trafficking drugs. Troopers contacted the Homeland Security Investigation’s Bulk Cash Smuggling Task Force. Investigators went to a Dayton home used by Morales and others to store drugs. Inside the home, investigators found more than eight kilograms of fentanyl, nearly one kilogram of heroin and a firearm. They arrested Morales-Medina. He has been in custody since his arrest. He pleaded guilty on May 20, 2016 to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin.
Morales-Medina, an illegal alien from Mexico, faces deportation at the conclusion of his prison sentence.
United States Attorney Glassman commended the cooperative investigation by those involved in the HSI Bulk Cash Smuggling Task Force, along with State Highway Patrol officers and Montgomery County Sheriff deputies, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Hunt, who represented the United States in this case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
