Illegal Alien Sentenced to More than 19 Years in Prison for Role in Trafficking More than 100 Pounds of Cocaine from Texas to Ohio

AKRON, Ohio – A criminal illegal alien from Mexico who supplied Cleveland-area drug traffickers with more than 100 pounds of cocaine has been sentenced to prison.

Dionicio Galindo-Salinas, age 49, a citizen of Mexico, was sentenced to 235 months (more than 19 years) in prison by U.S. District Judge John R. Adams after pleading guilty in April to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. Judge Adams imposed the sentence July 28, 2025.

According to court records, Galindo-Salinas is a Mexican national who had previously been removed from the United States. Another co-conspirator Earl King, age 45, of Cleveland, regularly traveled more than 1,600 miles to the US-Mexico border to purchase bulk quantities of cocaine from Galindo-Salinas. After purchasing the cocaine, King would ship it to the Cleveland area through a UPS-Staples store in Brownsville, Texas. Investigators discovered records indicating that King had been making these longs treks from Cleveland to Brownsville since approximately 2020, and that King had purchased at least 47 kilograms (more than 100 pounds) of cocaine from Galindo-Salinas during the conspiracy. According to testimony from the lead federal investigator, the estimated street value of 47 kilograms of cocaine in the Cleveland area would have been more than $2 million during the timeframe of the conspiracy.

“Anyone who thinks they can use Northern Ohio as a marketplace to peddle illegal drugs on behalf of transnational criminal organizations will face consequences,” said U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio. “We are fully committed to protecting the public by aggressively enforcing federal laws to keep our communities safe.”

“ICE HSI will continue to investigate, disrupt and dismantle cross border drug trafficking organizations that seek to poison our communities,” said ICE HSI Detroit acting Special Agent in Charge Jared Murphey. “I’m proud of the agents, prosecutors and law enforcement partners who relentlessly pursued justice in this case in order to safeguard the communities where they live and work.”

Galindo-Salinas is the fourth defendant to be convicted and sentenced in the investigation. Earl King was previously sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to his role in the conspiracy. Co-conspirator Curtis Anderson, who was involved in obtaining the cocaine and reselling it in the Cleveland area, was previously sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted by a jury at trial. A third co-conspirator, Donnell Gochett, age 42, of Cleveland, who provided King with addresses in Cleveland where the cocaine parcels could be shipped, was previously sentenced to 100 months (over eight years) in prison after pleading guilty.   

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with assistance from the DEA Cleveland Field Office and the Cleveland Division of Police.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys James P. Lewis and Yasmine Makridis for the Northern District of Ohio.