Mexican National Sentenced to over Five Years in Prison for Methamphetamine Trafficking

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Pedro Cerna Arias, 62, a Mexican national residing in Milpitas, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Daniel J. Calabretta to five years and 10 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced.

According to court documents, on April 9, 2020, Cerna Arias sold approximately 1 kilogram of methamphetamine to an undercover officer in Milpitas, in a deal that was initially negotiated between the undercover officer and a Mexico-based drug trafficker. On Oct. 8, 2021, law enforcement searched Cerna Arias’s residence and found about a kilogram of methamphetamine, a bucket with methamphetamine residue, drug ledgers, drug packaging material, and $6,165 in cash. Cerna Arias admitted to law enforcement that the methamphetamine was his and that he distributed methamphetamine in pound quantities.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Team (TRIDENT), with assistance from Customs and Border Protection, the California Highway Patrol, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Assistant U.S. Attorney David W. Spencer prosecuted the case.

Co-defendant Jose Moreno Albestrain was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Dec. 19, 2024, by Judge Calabretta for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

This prosecution is part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. The Sacramento Strike Force is a co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations. The specific mission of the Sacramento Strike Force is to identify, investigate, disrupt, and dismantle the most significant drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) shipping narcotics, firearms, and money through the Eastern District of California, thereby reducing the flow of these criminal resources in California and the rest of the United States. The Sacramento Strike Force leads intelligence-driven investigations targeting the leadership and support elements of these DTOs and TCOs operating within the Eastern District of California, regardless of their geographic base of operations.