Brooklyn Center Man Sentenced To 210 Months In Prison For Methamphetamine, Cocaine Distribution

United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald announced the sentencing of EDGAR MARTINEZ-SANCHEZ, 41, to 210 months in prison for his role in a methamphetamine and cocaine distribution conspiracy. MARTINEZ-SANCHEZ, who pleaded guilty on November 14, 2017, to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, was sentenced yesterday before Judge Joan N. Ericksen in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

According to the defendant’s guilty plea and documents filed in court, from 2014 through February 2017, MARTINEZ-SANCHEZ along with other individuals including his co-defendants ROBERTO GALICIA-MACEDA and ELIEL GARCIA, conspired to distribute and transport methamphetamine and cocaine across the Twin Cities metropolitan area as part of the Martinez-Sanchez Drug Trafficking Organization. After a contested evidentiary proceeding on Tuesday, October 23, 2018, the Court found that MARTINEZ-SANCHEZ was the organization’s manager in Minnesota, who directed his co-defendants in their drug trafficking activities along with co-conspirators in Arizona and Mexico. For example, MARTINEZ-SANCHEZ negotiated three separate 1-pound methamphetamine transactions with a government informant and then directed GALICIA-MACEDA to deliver that methamphetamine, ultimately to an undercover law enforcement officer. After each transaction, law enforcement agents followed GALICIA-MACEDA as he traveled back to SANCHEZ to deliver the money he had received from the transaction. SANCHEZ also directed GARCIA in the organization’s day-to-day operations as a drug deliverer and money courier.

The investigation, which began in 2016, included the February 7, 2017, seizure of approximately $391,000 from GALICIA-MACEDA’s vehicle as he traveled southbound on Interstate 35 from the Twin Cities. During a February 14, 2017, arrest and warrant takedown operation, agents seized approximately $150,000, 11 pounds of methamphetamine, four kilograms of cocaine, as well as other evidence, during searches of the residences held by MARTINEZ-SANCHEZ, GALICIA-MACEDA, and GARCIA.

This case was the result of an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Saint Paul Police Department, and the Minneapolis Police Department.

Assistant United States Attorney Allen A. Slaughter prosecuted this case.

Defendant Information:                                                                                                                     

EDGAR MARTINEZ-SANCHEZ, 41

Brooklyn Center, Minn.

Convicted:

• Conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, 1 count

Sentenced:

• 210 months in prison

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United States Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota: (612) 664-5600