Meth Trafficker Receives Over 12 Years in Prison for Fresno-Based Methamphetamine Conspiracy

U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that MANUEL OMAR MINJAREZ, age 27, of Fresno, California, and currently a resident of Houma, Louisiana, was sentenced today after pleading guilty to a three-count Indictment for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and having methamphetamine mailed to him from Fresno.

U.S. District Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle sentenced MINJAREZ to 151 months in prison, to be followed by 6 years of supervised release.  Counts 2 and 3 charged MINJAREZ with using telecommunications facilities and the U.S. Mail in furtherance of a drug trafficking conspiracy.  Judge Lemelle sentenced MINJAREZ to 48 months in prison, to be followed by 1 year of supervised release as to each count.  The judge ordered all of the sentences to run concurrent.

According to court documents, this case arose out of an investigation into methamphetamine trafficking that was being conducted by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) in Fresno during the summer of 2014.  In July 2014, agents learned through a court-authorized wiretap that members of a Fresno-based methamphetamine trafficking organization were mailing methamphetamine to a drug dealer in Houma.  DEA agents and Postal Inspectors in Fresno coordinated with their counterparts in the New Orleans offices for the DEA and the USPIS to further investigate the Houma-based arm of this drug conspiracy.  Postal Inspectors in Houma subsequently intercepted a package containing almost one pound of methamphetamine on July 18, 2014.  With the assistance of the Louisiana State Police and the Terrebonne Narcotics Task Force, DEA Agents and US Postal Inspectors determined that MINJAREZ was the intended recipient of the package.

As the investigation continued, DEA Agents intercepted additional calls during July 2014 in which MINJAREZ requested more methamphetamine to be mailed from the Fresno cell of this drug trafficking conspiracy.  USPS Postal Inspectors also determined that MINJAREZ had previously received another package of methamphetamine on July 10, 2014, that weighed approximately one pound and eleven ounces.  MINJAREZ was arrested on July 30, 2014, by a Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper in Sutton County, Texas.  Through the assistance of Texas state authorities, MINJAREZ was removed to federal custody to face the federal indictment in New Orleans.

U.S. Attorney Polite praised the work of the Fresno offices for the DEA and USPIS, the DEA New Orleans Office, the USPIS New Orleans Office, the Louisiana State Police, and the Terrebonne Narcotics Task Force in investigating this matter.  U.S. Attorney Polite extended his thanks to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Sutton County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office for the Texas 112th Judicial District, and the DEA Office in Del Rio, Texas, for their assistance in prosecuting this case.  Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew R. Payne and Theodore R. Carter, III, were in charge of the prosecution.