After nearly two years, a languishing case against a drug trafficking organization operating in Starr County is set to go to trial after all but two of seven defendants are considering taking plea deals.
“This is a really old case,” U.S. District Judge Randy Crane pointed out at the start of the hearing on Oct. 28.
“I think that there has been some change in attitude in terms of some of the defendants, in terms of wanting to plea,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Profit said.
Brothers Daniel, 30, Rene, 25, and Evaristo Sepulveda III, 36, and his wife Julisa Peña, 32, were named defendants along with Garcia brothers, Jose Luis, 44, and Juan Indalecio, 40. Almost a year later, Edgar Yvan Moreno Barragan was also charged and arrested. All but Julisa Peña were deemed a flight risk if released on bond and have since been in federal custody.
The group was charged in January 2020 in an indictment that grew to 15 counts for their roles in a drug trafficking organization that moved illicit drugs from Starr County’s border with Mexico to the east coast.
Daniel Sepulveda, 30, was charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance, and money laundering.
The charges stemmed from a smuggling event in Jan. 17, 2019, though the conspiracy reportedly started in 2007, according to the indictment. In 2019, Daniel, acting under the direction of Jose Luis Garcia, drove down to pick up a load of 320 kilograms of cocaine from the Rio Grande with Juan Indalecio Garcia, Evaristo Sepulveda III, Rene Sepulveda, and Luis Sepulveda, who has yet to be formally indicted.
Border Patrol agents spotted Daniel as he drove the bundles in an ATV prompting him to flee and crash into the river and swim back to Mexico.
On Oct. 28, Daniel Sanchez, Sepulveda’s attorney, said he believed his client may be able to find resolution.
The decision is an about-face for the defendant whose bravado inspired two narco corridos. He’s also suspected, though not charged, in the disappearance of his cousin, Joaquin Sepulveda, according to testimony from a federal agent.
The defendant also made threats against federal agents who arrested him on Feb. 5, 2020, telling them they were lucky, “that if he got one of his rifles he would have at least shot two agents,” a federal agent testified Feb. 13, 2020.
Profit reminded the court that Sepulveda tried to take the “fall” for the group when he attempted to enter a guilty plea last year and assume responsibility for the entire incident.
During that Sept. 3, 2020 hearing, Daniel Sepulveda told the court, “I agree, by myself, that I did that.”
The judge asked for clarification since he had said he was guilty of the conspiracy charge which would implicate the others. Sepulveda insisted, “it was all me,” but after a quick break and talk with his attorney, he took back the guilty plea for the conspiracy.
“The government had heard that there was a scheme afoot for Mr. Sepulveda to take responsibility for the 320 kilograms of cocaine and deny responsibility as to the other people who were involved,” Profit said.
Sanchez told the judge they would likely not go forward with a trial, hinting at a guilty plea.
Daniel’s younger brother, Rene, was offered a plea deal last week, his attorney, John Adam Pope, told the judge.
Rene and his brother, Luis, were named in another smuggling incident from April 2020. A co-defendant, Josue Islas, told investigators that he had been working for Rene Sepulveda as a scout and owned a stash house used by Islas.
“The plea offer that has been extended will essentially resolve that second case,” Pope said during last week’s hearing.
The other Sepulveda brother, Evaristo, will also be avoiding a trial, according to federal court records that indicate he’s ready to plea.
Evaristo and his wife, Julisa Peña, who is facing a violation of interstate commerce in using up to $110,000 from drug proceeds, will be rescheduled for a possible re-arraignment in a month.
The Garcia brothers might choose different paths.
Juan Indalecio Garcia, initially obstinate to reach a plea, appeared to have changed his mind after seeing some of the government’s compelling evidence, Profit said last week.
Some of the evidence was taken from seized cellphones and included conversations about crossing narcotics through the river, photos of marijuana loads, cocaine, law enforcement, and even video of a drug cartel interrogation showing a man who is alive, having his legs cut off and then beaten with them.
“We provided the defense with this both in its raw format and finally in a more digestible format,” Profit said. “And I think that this is what is triggering an interest on the part of the defense in terms of believing that the government had nothing, that the government only had cooperators to the fact that the government actually has basically information put together from the defendants’ own words.”
Ricardo Montalvo, attorney for Juan I. Garcia, told Judge Crane, “I can see some resolution for this.”
Crane responded, “It sounds to me, again, just reading the tea leaves here, that you’re probably going to work it out and not actually be a defendant at the trial.”
Other defendants, Profit said, “their attitude is simply not going to change,” referring to Juan’s brother, Jose Luis.
“My client maintains his innocence and will go to trial next month,” Oscar Vega, Jose Luis’ attorney affirmed in an email sent to The Monitor.
Jose Luis Garcia, considered to be the head of the organization, faces the most counts out of all defendants: conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, selling, distributing or dispensing a controlled substance, tampering with a witness, victim or informant, and money laundering. Jose Luis is also father to the teenager, Jose Luis Garcia Jr., accused and acquitted of killing Chayse Olivarez, the son of a rival drug trafficker, in 2017.
Testimony during a detention hearing on Feb. 11, 2020 placed Jose Luis at a residence where shots were fired toward federal surveillance cameras.
Evidence recovered from a cellphone suggested Jose Luis told Daniel Sepulveda to destroy the cameras. It was also under his direction that Daniel Sepulveda initiated the drug smuggling event in 2019, prosecutors alleged.
Other evidence further linked Jose Luis to drug trafficking activity. Agents who searched his residence and property on Aug. 30, 2019, found stacks of shrink-wrapped money totaling to $275,205, firearms, hand-written notes, and a radio frequency jammer — equipment used to block radio communication for a certain length of time.
During his detention hearing on April 2, 2020, Profit revealed Jose Luis had threatened to turn a federal agent into “soup,” a term used in Mexico to describe dissolving bodies in acid.
“We have not been extended any plea offers,” Vega informed Crane last week. “So, basically we have no option, judge.”
Another defendant, Edgar Yvan Moreno Barragan, is facing a similar fate. He was charged with conspiracy and selling, distributing and dispensing a controlled substance.
“I do not expect a plea deal will be forthcoming and a trial appears imminent,” Jose Luis Ramos, Barragan’s attorney, stated in an email sent to The Monitor.
A jury trial is tentatively set for December.
