Two defendants accused of belonging to a Starr County drug trafficking organization are set to go to trial next week.
U.S. District Judge Randy Crane held a pretrial conference on Friday for Daniel Sepulveda and Edgar Yvan Moreno Barragan, two of seven defendants named in the indictment.
Sepulveda was charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and money laundering.
Border Patrol spotted Sepulveda driving an ATV loaded with drug bundles in 2019 before he crashed into the river and fled into Mexico.
Sepulveda entered a guilty plea for the possession charge and for the conspiracy charge, before taking it back in September 2020. The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Profit, believed Sepulveda was trying to take the fall for the other co-defendants.
On Friday, Profit said a plea packet was sent to Sepulveda but it was yet to be returned.
Daniel Sanchez, Sepulveda’s legal counsel, said he felt they are in a “holding pattern.”
“Today Ms. Profit was trying to find out if he wanted to plead to the rest of the indictment,” Sanchez told The Monitor on Friday. “Usually when you plead to one count like that, a significant count, they dismiss the other counts. But here, she hadn’t done that.”
Crane also said a plea on the conspiracy charge would not change the punishment guidelines.
All other defendants, with the exception of Barragan, have entered guilty pleas.
Barragan was charged with conspiracy and selling, distributing and dispensing a controlled substance. Profit said he had a “cocaine lottery” during Friday’s proceedings. Barragan did not receive a plea deal as the others did.
Sepulveda’s brothers, Rene and Evaristo Sepulveda, and the Garcia brothers, Jose Luis and Juan Indalecio, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count in the last two weeks.
Julisa Peña, wife to Evaristo Sepulveda, also entered a guilty plea for a violation of interstate commerce.
Daniel Sepulveda may still change his plea in the coming week. Otherwise, jury selection is scheduled to start Dec. 13.
Sentencing for the other defendants was scheduled tentatively for early February.
