Leader of Local Meth Drug Dealing Organization Gets 188-Month Prison Sentence
Jasper Co-Defendant Also Sentenced to 10 Years for Dealing Methamphetamine

INDIANAPOLIS—Rosendo Barragan-Cruz (a.k.a. “Pollo”), 25, Evansville, was sentenced to 188 months’ imprisonment yesterday by U.S. District Chief Judge Richard L. Young, announced Timothy M. Morrison, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. Barragan-Cruz was sentenced for his leadership role in methamphetamine and marijuana trafficking conspiracies. Jose Reyes-Figueroa (a.k.a “Christian Mejia Duran,” a.k.a. “Fernando Correa”) 29, Jasper, Indiana, was sentenced to 120 months’ imprisonment yesterday by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young for conspiring to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine.

These two defendants were among 33 individuals charged in three separate indictments in January 2008, following a DEA-led ten month investigation in for trafficking large amounts of methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana in the Southern District of Indiana and elsewhere. All 33 federal defendants either pleaded guilty or were found guilty by a jury. The indictments were the result of a multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which also included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Indianapolis Metro Drug Task Force, the Indiana State Police, the Kentucky State Police, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, that targeted and dismantled a poly-drug trafficking organization which operated in Indiana, Illinois, Utah, Texas, and New Mexico.

In the spring 2007, police launched an investigation into the drug trafficking activities of organizations responsible for distributing millions of dollars worth of methamphetamine and marijuana in the Evansville area. Barragan-Cruz was the local leader of those drug dealing organizations.

In January 2008, Federal agents arrested Reyes-Figueroa at his Jasper residence. Inside Reyes-Figueroa’s residence police found 38 grams of methamphetamine, more than $75,000 cash, and a loaded 9mm firearm.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Matthias D. Onderak, who prosecuted the case for the government, Chief Judge Young also imposed five years'’supervised release following Barragan-Cruz’s and Reyes-Figueroa’s release from imprisonment. However, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to pursue deportation proceedings against both, citizens of Mexico, after they complete their prison sentence.