Conspirator In Maryland Drug Ring Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison

Greenbelt, Maryland – Chief U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Mikhnail DelRosario, a/k/a Mickey, age 28, of Silver Spring, Maryland, today to 11 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release, for conspiring to distribute more than 700 kilograms of marijuana and conspiring to commit money laundering. Chief Judge Chasanow also ordered that DelRosario forfeit $1 million, believed to be the proceeds of the drug and money laundering conspiracies.

The sentences were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department.

According to his guilty plea and court documents, from March 2011 to December 2012, DelRosario conspired with Billymir Mancilla-Brevichet, Chamron Thach, Carlos Escobar, and others to distribute marijuana in the Montgomery County, Maryland area. From October 2012 through December 2012, Delrosario was intercepted on over seventy-five drug-related telephone conversations on Mancilla and Thach’s telephones, during which he discussed the sale of and arranged drug transactions involving marijuana.

Specifically, Mancilla acquired large amounts of high-quality marijuana from suppliers in California and elsewhere, and arranged for the transport of the marijuana by plane, car and mail to co-conspirators in Montgomery County, Maryland, including DelRosario. During the time of the conspiracy, DelRosario received 2 to 4 pound packages of marijuana from Mancilla at least two to three times per month. DelRosario also received packages of marijuana that he supplied to other members of the conspiracy on Mancilla’s behalf. DelRosario also sent couriers with currency to Mancilla in California to purchase marijuana from Mancilla. DelRosario paid Mancilla between $3,000 and $4,000 per pound of marijuana.

Mancilla’s co-conspirators also transported at least 100 pounds of marijuana at a time by car to a storage facility in Maryland, where Mancilla arranged for DelRosario and others, to pick up multiple pounds of marijuana for re-distribution. On at least five occasions, DelRosario traveled to California to receive marijuana and to transport drug proceeds in the form of bulk cash to Mancilla. DelRosario packaged and shipped the marijuana from Mancilla’s California residence to Maryland for redistribution.

During his participation in the conspiracy, DelRosario conspired to distribute between 700 and 1,000 kilograms of marijuana.

The conspirators also engaged in financial transactions that were designed to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership and control of the drug proceeds. For example, Mancilla arranged to receive payment for the marijuana he caused to be distributed by having drug customers deposit cash payments in amounts less than $10,000 into bank accounts that he controlled that were held in fake names and in the names of fake businesses. DelRosario and other co-conspirators, including Mancilla, Thach and Escobar, structured the financial transactions to evade the requirement that banks report transactions over $10,000 to the IRS, thereby concealing from the government large cash transactions by drug dealers.

Mancilla arranged for drug customers to mail drug proceeds from Maryland to him in California. Mancilla also had drug customers make payments to DelRosario and other co-conspirators in Maryland, who bundled the drug proceeds together in amounts ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, and arranged for individuals to transport the bulk cash by airplane from Maryland to Mancilla in California. DelRosario also made several trips by plane from Maryland to Mancilla in California with bulk cash.

For example, during the course of the conspiracy, DelRosario made two deliveries of currency to a cooperating informant totaling over $36,000. In October 2012, DelRosario provided $58,200 to Thach for payment to Mancilla for marijuana. DelRosario was responsible for acquiring and transporting at least $1,000,000 during the course of the conspiracy.

Billymir Mancilla-Brevichet, age 28, of Oakland, California, was previously sentenced to 90 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $278,618 seized from May to October, 2012. Co-conspirators Chamron Thach, a/k/a Sham, age 30, of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Carlos Salvador Escobar, a/k/a Esco, age 30, of Arlington, Virginia, were sentenced to eight years and three years in prison, respectively, for their participation in the drug and money laundering conspiracies. Six other conspirators pleaded guilty and were sentenced to between 4 years and 78 months in prison.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended HSI Baltimore and Montgomery County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Christen A. Sproule and Mara Zusman Greenberg, who prosecuted this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case.