Leader of International Drug Trafficking Organization Sentenced

RICHMOND, Va. – A Guatemalan man was sentenced today to over 23 years in prison for his leadership role in operating a large-scale Guatemalan drug trafficking organization (DTO) that moved 3,739 kilograms of cocaine throughout Central America, as part of a coordinated international law enforcement investigation codenamed Operation Go Explorers.

According to court documents, Max Alberto Estrada-Linares, 36, who was extradited to the United States in December 2017, served as the head of the DTO. In this leadership role, Estrada organized cocaine transportation networks, directed others to buy and sell cocaine on behalf of the DTO, initiated the construction of a semi-self-propelled semi-submersible vessel to transport cocaine, directed the movement of cocaine loads, and served as the overall leader of the DTO.

Operating throughout Central America, Estrada’s DTO knowingly orchestrated the movement of over 3,000 kilograms of cocaine from Costa Rica to the Guatemalan-Mexican border. In May 2016, Estrada directed the use of violence against co-conspirators in an effort to locate approximately 500 kilograms of cocaine suspected to be stolen from the DTO off the Pacific coast of Guatemala. In September 2016, Guatemalan law enforcement authorities seized the self-propelled semi-submersible vessel under construction by Quinonez and the DTO in Guatemala.

Operation Go Explorers was investigated as part of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Scott W. Hoernke, Acting Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Field Division, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erik S. Siebert, Peter S. Duffey, and Heather H. Mansfield prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information is located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:16-cr-67.