Texas Resident Sentenced For Federal Drug Crime

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Darlene Ruelas Flores, a/k/a Darlene Sheppard, age 44, of San Antonio, Texas, was sentenced to 84 months in prison for one count of Possession with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Choctaw Nation Lighthorse Police Department.

On February 13, 2025, Flores pleaded guilty to the charge.  According to investigators, on May 30, 2024, law enforcement conducting a routine traffic stop for equipment violations discovered Flores in possession of 968.9 grams of a white substance that later tested positive for fentanyl, a Schedule II controlled substance.

The Honorable Ronald A. White, Chief U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.  Flores will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard J. Lorenz represented the United States.