Six Methamphetamine Traffickers Sentenced In Operation "No Quarter"

RALEIGH - United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court today Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever III sentenced ISMAEL PARRILLA, 32, of Long Beach, California, to 180 months of imprisonment; LUIS GUTIERREZ RODRIGUEZ, 40, of Houston, Texas, to 162 months of imprisonment; HUMBERTO GARCIA, 26, San Pedro, California, to 100 months of imprisonment; GUILLERMO VILLARREAL SICAIROS, 30, of Culican, Mexico, to 156 months imprisonment; KATHERINE LASSWELL, 31, of Phoenix, Arizona, to 84 months imprisonment; and ELIZABETH VILLANUEVA, 44, of Tempe, Arizona, to 72 months imprisonment.  Each defendant will be under 5 years of supervised release upon their release from the Bureau of Prisons.  PARRILLA, RODRIGUEZ, GARCIA, and SICAIROS previously hadpled guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of a substance or mixture containing a detectible amount of methamphetamine.  LASSWELL and VILLANUEVA previously had pled guilty to possession with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of a substance or mixture containing a detectible amount of methamphetamine and aiding and abetting.

PARRILLA, RODRIGUEZ, and GARCIA facilitated the delivery of 4.1 kilograms of methamphetamine to Greenville, North Carolina. The methamphetamine was delivered to Greenville from California on June 22, 2012, by codefendant Christina Capers whose sentencing hearing is pending.  Law enforcement officers intercepted the car driven by Capers and found the methamphetamine stashed in a hidden compartment in the rear door of the car. 

     SICAIROS facilitated two deliveries of methamphetamine to eastern North Carolina from Mexico.  On April 1, 2012, law enforcement officers intercepted a car in Greenville that had 5.4 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in the front bumper.  On May 4, 2012, SICAIROS, LASSWELL, and VILLANUEVA were arrested in Kinston, North Carolina, after law enforcement officers found 1.9 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in a clothes dryer in the SUV driven by VILLANUEVA and occupied by LASSWELL.

     The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Operation "No Quarter" was designed to attack the infrastructure of the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO), including those of the Los Zetas, La Familia, Gulf and Sinaloa drug cartels, operating not only in the Eastern District of North Carolina, but throughout North Carolina, the United States and Mexico.  These DTO's are responsible for the importation of large quantities of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine into the United States, as well as the related remittance of illegal drug proceeds back into Mexico. 

The investigation spanned ten years and five North Carolina counties. As part of the investigation, over 100 individuals have been charged by indictment or criminal information in the Eastern District of North Carolina and state courts. In addition, $2.2 million in U.S. Currency, 127 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of $3.8 million dollars, 41 pounds of crystal methamphetamine with a street value of $650,000, 160 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $170,000, 32 grams of heroin, 35 firearms and 35 real properties valued at $1.5 million were seized by law enforcement authorities.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) - Raleigh and Greensboro Resident Offices, the New York Field Division and numerous other DEA offices in the United States and Mexico;  the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation Division; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) - Raleigh and Wilmington offices; the United States Marshals Service; the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) - Raleigh and Tampa, Florida offices; the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation; the North Carolina National Guard; the North Carolina State Highway Patrol; the Greenville Police Department; the Pitt County Sheriff's Office; the Pamlico County Sheriff's Office; the Lenoir County Sheriff's Office; the Craven County Sheriff's Office; the Carteret County Sheriff's Office; the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office; the New Bern Police Department, the Wayne County Sheriff's Office; the Person County Sheriff's Office; the Farmville Police Department; the Goldsboro Police Department; the Rocky Mount Police Department; the Burlington Police Department, the Alamance County Sheriff's Office, and the Wilson Police Department.

The federal prosecutions were handled by Special Assistant United States Attorneys Glenn Perry and Augustus Willis, IV.  Mr. Perry is a prosecutor with the Pitt County District Attorney’s Office. Mr. Willis is a prosecutor with the Craven, Carteret and Pamlico Counties District Attorney’s Office.  District Attorneys Kimberly Robb and Scott Thomas have assigned Mr. Perry and Mr. Willis to the United States Attorney’s Office to prosecute federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force criminal matters. Their assignments to the United States Attorney’s Office have been made possible by grants funded by the Governor’s Crime Commission.