Six Members of Large-Scale Multi-State Methamphetamine Organization Sentenced to Prison

BOISE - Jose Luis Corrales Cruz, 58, of Romona, California; Juan Navarette, 20, of Ontario, Oregon; Jorge Sandoval, 22, of Placentia, California, Marco Antonio Tinoco, 26, of Ontario, Oregon; Hernan Arteaga-Solchaga, 23, of Nampa, Idaho; and Ruby Martinez, 41, of Nampa, Idaho were sentenced over the past week to federal prison for their role in a large-scale, multi-state methamphetamine trafficking organization, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.  Visiting Senior United States District Judge William B. Shubb sentenced Cruz to 72 months imprisonment and ordered $100,000 in cash proceeds to be forfeited.  Cruz will be deported to Mexico after serving his prison sentence.  Judge Shubb sentenced Juan Navarette to 37 months imprisonment, to be followed by four years of supervised release.  Navarette was also ordered to forfeit $100,000 in cash proceeds.

Earlier this week, Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill sentenced Jorge Sandoval to 87 months imprisonment, to be followed by 4 years of supervised release.  Sandoval was ordered to forfeit $100,000 in cash proceeds.  Judge Winmill sentenced Marco Tinoco to 33 months imprisonment, to be followed by four years of supervised release, and ordered cash proceeds of $4500 to be forfeited.  Yesterday, Judge Winmill sentenced Hernan Arteaga-Solchaga to 30 months imprisonment, with no supervised release to follow.  Arteaga-Solchaga will be deported back to Mexico after serving his prison sentence.  This morning, Judge Winmill sentenced Ruby Martinez to serve 24 months imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered her to forfeit $2500 in cash proceeds.            

Co-defendant’s Maribel Betancourt, 41, of Meridian, Idaho; Oscar Adan Jaimez-Munoz, 35, of Placentia, California; Ruben Rangel Perez, 34, of Placentia, California, and Andres Navarrette, Jr., 26, of Ontario, Oregon, are set for sentencing later this fall.  Francisco Sandoval, 60, of Placentia, California is pending a change of plea hearing, while Horacio Linares, 47, of Anaheim, California and Rafael Sotero Lopez-Vasquez, 43, of Nampa, Idaho are set for jury trial on November 16, 2015.  Carmen J. Gomez-Rangel, 49, of Nampa, Idaho, remains a fugitive.

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, the Boise Police Department, the Meridian Police Department and the Nampa Police Department, as well as the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which includes the cooperative law enforcement efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation; and U.S. Marshals Service. 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.