RICHMOND, Va. - A Guatemalan man was sentenced today to over 17 years in prison for his role in transporting 1,107 kilograms of cocaine for a large-scale Guatemalan drug trafficking organization (DTO) operating in Central America, as part of a coordinated international law enforcement investigation codenamed Operation Go Explorers.
According to court documents, Paulo Cesar Montenegro-Arevalo, 41, conspired to distribute over 1,000 kilograms or more of cocaine, knowing and intending that it would be unlawfully imported into the United States from 2015 to 2016. Montenegro, who was extradited to the United States on March 14, 2018, served as the DTO’s logistical coordinator for Guatemalan trafficking operations. In this role, Montenegro supervised a transportation team, tested the purity of the cocaine purchased by the DTO, organized transportation efforts, and directed the movement of cocaine loads. Operating primarily within Guatemala, Montenegro and his team knowingly orchestrated the movement of 1,107 kilograms of cocaine to the Guatemalan-Mexican border on behalf of the DTO. In May 2016, Montenegro, along with other co-conspirators, participated in a search and rescue recovery effort of approximately 500 kilograms of cocaine lost at sea by the DTO off the Pacific coast of Guatemala.
G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Scott W. Hoernke, Acting Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Field Division, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erik S. Siebert, Peter S. Duffey, and Heather H. Mansfield prosecuted the case.
Operation Go Explorers was investigated as part of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information is located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:16-cr-67.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
