LAFAYETTE, La. - Acting United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced that Jesus Silverio Cervantes, 36, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who formerly lived in Abbeville, Louisiana, has been sentenced. United States District Judge Dee Drell sentenced Cervantes to 120 months (10 years) in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release for possession of heroin with intent to distribute.
Jesus Silverio Cervantes was indicted on May 12, 2011 and charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin. According to documents introduced in court, Cervantes and other co-conspirators operated a cocaine and heroin drug trafficking organization from a residence in Abbeville, Louisiana from on or about Jan. 1, 2008 until March 1, 2011. Cervantes and other co-conspirators and members of the drug trafficking organization received not less than five kilograms of cocaine and not less than one kilogram of heroin at this residence for distribution in the Western District of Louisiana and elsewhere, including the greater Baton Rouge, Louisiana area. Before Cervantes was arraigned on these charges he disappeared and remained a fugitive until Aug. 16, 2018, when he was arrested by law enforcement officers in Tacoma, Washington. Cervantes pled guilty to the charge on Jan. 27, 2020.
In addition, as a result of being convicted on the charges above, Cervantes was in violation of his probation from a previous conviction in the Western District of Louisiana for being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm (2007). For this violation, Cervantes was sentenced to an additional 6 months in prison. This sentence will run consecutive to the sentence imposed for possession of heroin with intent to distribute.
The DEA and Department of Homeland Security - Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Luke Walker prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
