Mexican Man Pleads Guilty to Meth Conspiracy

A Mexican man who was illegally in the United States pled guilty on August 28, 2018, in federal court in Sioux City.

Jesus Jonathan Vazquez-Espinoza, 33, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the United States and who was residing in Spencer, Iowa, was convicted of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

In a plea agreement, Vazquez-Espinoza admitted that he received approximately $10,000 worth of methamphetamine in March 2017, and continued to receive an average of 1 pound of methamphetamine every two weeks until his arrest in April 2018.  Vazquez-Espinoza arranged for the methamphetamine to be delivered by mail to different residences in Iowa.  At the time of Vazquez-Espinoza’s arrest, law enforcement seized over 2 pounds of methamphetamine and $8,712 in cash. 

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Vazquez-Espinoza remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing.  Vazquez-Espinoza faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $5,000,000 fine, and 5 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ajay J. Alexander and was investigated by the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement with assistance from the Iowa Great Lakes Drug Task Force, which includes the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office, the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa State Patrol, Spencer Police Department, the Okoboji Police Department, and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 18-CR-4032-LTS.

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