By Roberto Bustamante
Jun 26, 2024, 11:30 AM EDT
A former Mexican lawyer was sentenced to more than seven years in prison in the United States for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, including methamphetamine, according to the Department of Justice.
Gustavo Castellanos Tapia38, was sentenced to 90 months in prison after being identified as a major supplier of methamphetamine for a drug trafficking organization with ties to the prison gang known as The Aryan Family.
According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, during the investigation detectives monitored Castellanos Tapia and discovered that he frequently delivered suitcases containing between 30 and 40 pounds of methamphetamine.
Court reports indicate that Tapia worked in Mexico as a lawyer, but after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 his economy was affected, so he decided to move to the United States that same year.
He initially worked as a ship painter in Washington., but later became involved in drug trafficking activities to increase his income. Investigations indicate that, since then, Tapia dedicated himself to providing methamphetamine to a criminal organization linked to La Familia Aria, a white supremacist prison gang.
Was illegally in the United States
Castellanos Tapia and 23 other defendants were arrested in March 2023. Agents seized approximately 255 pounds of methamphetamine, 830,000 fentanyl pillsmore than 26 pounds of powdered fentanyl, cocaine and heroin, plus $668,000 in suspected drug proceeds and 225 firearms.
“Drugs like the methamphetamine that Castellanos Tapia distributed have a devastating impact on the community,” prosecutors wrote, asking for a nine-year prison sentence.
“Consumers of these drugs frequently resort to theft to feed their addictions. Without a doubt, drug users are responsible for a large percentage of these crimes, as well as violent crimes, in our communities,” they added.
Castellanos Tapia will likely be deported after his prison sentenceprosecutors said, since he was in the United States illegally.
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