Salinas Drug Trafficker Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison as Part of Ongoing Nuestra Familia Prosecution
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 09, 2013 |
SACRAMENTO, CA—Alvaro Cobian Gomez, 41, of Salinas, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Shubb to 20 years in prison for participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy and using a phone to further drug trafficking crimes, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
Judge Shubb said the sentence reflected the seriousness of Gomez’s crimes and would protect the community from future crimes being committed by Gomez.
Gomez pleaded guilty on July 5, 2011, to conspiring with the Nuestra Familia (NF) gang to distribute methamphetamine. The Nuestra Familia is a violent Hispanic prison gang based within the California and federal prison systems whose members exert control over street-level Norteño gang members engaged in drug trafficking and violent crime. According to evidence presented during an evidentiary hearing, Gomez was not an NF member, but he did distribute large amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine with high-ranking members of the NF between 2004 and 2007.
This case is the product of an investigation by the FBI’s Stockton Violent Crime Task Force, the San Joaquin County Metropolitan Narcotics Task Force (METRO), the Stockton Police Department, the Salinas Police Department, the Watsonville Police Department, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It was also part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The OCDETF Program was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multi-level attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s drug supply.
When prosecuted in federal court, drug traffickers typically receive much harsher sentences, and there is no early release on parole in the federal system.