Operation Shooting Star Results in Three Dozen Prison Sentences
Ledgers of Drug Co-Conspirators Showed $190 Million in Drug Proceeds in Only 10 Months

ATLANTA—After convicting four defendants during two separate trials and accepting guilty pleas from 36 other defendants, United States District Judge Charles A. Pannell has imposed sentences on all but one defendant in the two-year prosecution resulting from the David G. Wilhelm OCDETF Strike Force’s investigation named Operation Shooting Star. The latest sentence, handed down today, was a 300-month federal prison sentence for JULIO CESAR AVALOS-CERPAS, 35, from Mexico, for his role as a leader of a distribution “cell.” The sentences that Judge Pannell imposed on the other defendants ranged from 16 months to life in prison. There is no parole in the federal system.

Acting United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, “These 40 convictions show the results that are achieved when federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies work together to stem the flow of poison into this country and to stop the cross-border flow of cash to violent, greed-driven cartel members in Mexico.”

According to Acting United States Attorney Yates, the charges, and other information presented in court: Between November 2006 and December 2007, members of a large, sophisticated cocaine trafficking organization linked to Mexican drug cartels used the metro Atlanta area as the transshipment point for more than 7,000 kilograms of cocaine.

Seized ledgers showed that during this period, organization members collected at least $193,129,208 in drug proceeds in the Atlanta area, transported those funds through the Southeastern United States, and smuggled them across the United States/Mexico border to pay cartel leaders in charge of operations. During the course of the investigation, agents intercepted telephone calls over approximately 53 telephones; searched at least 30 locations; and seized more than $10 million in cash, 383 kilograms of cocaine, and 30 firearms, including assault rifles, shotguns, and handguns with 30-round magazines.

Judge Pannell imposed the following sentences today and over the past 11 months:

Defendants JUAN ANTONIO RAMOS-SANCHEZ, JORGE LUIS CORDERO-PENA, JOSE EMMANUEL GUADARRAMA, OPHELIA PINEDA, AND FNU LNU, a/k/a “LICENCIADO,” remain fugitives.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta recommends parents and children learn about the dangers of drugs at the following website: www.justthinktwice.com.

The agents who investigated this case are assigned to the David G. Wilhelm OCDETF Strike Force and are employed by the following law enforcement agencies: the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement; United States Marshals Service, Georgia Department of Corrections, Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, DeKalb County Police Department, Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, and Fayette County Sheriff’s Office. Significant assistance in this case was provided by the Georgia State Patrol.

Assistant United States Attorneys Elizabeth M. Hathaway and Jenny Turner prosecuted the case.

For further information please contact Sally Q. Yates, Acting United States Attorney, or Charysse L. Alexander, Executive Assistant United States Attorney, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney's Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan.