Mexican National Pleads Guilty to Federal Narcotics Trafficking Charge in New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE – Maria Marcelina Cardoza-Burciaga, 39, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty this afternoon in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to a methamphetamine trafficking charge.

Cardoza-Burciaga, and co-defendant Joel Dominguez-Morales, 40, a Mexican national, were arrested in May 2015, on a criminal complaint charging them with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.  The criminal complaint charged the duo with negotiating the sale of eight pounds of methamphetamine to an undercover agent in early May 2015, in Lea County, N.M.  It also alleged that they were arrested on May 6, 2015, when they attempted to complete the drug deal.

Cardoza-Burciaga and Dominguez-Morales were subsequently indicted on July 23, 2015, in a one-count indictment that also charged three other defendants:  Jose Manuel Trujillo, 40, a Mexican national, Myrna Orozco, 31, of Denver City, Texas, and Javier Amador Flores, 48, of Hobbs, N.M. According to the indictment, the five defendants conspired to distribute methamphetamine from May 1, 2015 through May 6, 2015, in Lea County.

During today’s proceedings, Cardoza-Burciaga pled guilty to the indictment and admitted that on May 6, 2015, she conspired with her co-defendants to distribute methamphetamine.  She also admitted delivering methamphetamine to one of her co-defendants at an abandoned bar in Hobbs.  She acknowledged that she delivered the methamphetamine for the purpose of distributing it to other individuals.

At sentencing, Cardoza-Burciaga faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison followed by not less than three years of supervised release.  She remains in custody pending a sentencing hearing which has yet to be scheduled.

Dominguez-Morales, Orozco and Flores have entered not guilty pleas to the indictment and are awaiting trial.  Charges in criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  Trujillo has yet to be arrested and is considered a fugitive.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Lea County Drug Task Force.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Brock Taylor of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office is prosecuting the case.

The Lea County Drug Task Force is comprised of officers from the Lea County Sheriff’s Office, Hobbs Police Department, Lovington Police Department, Eunice Police Department the Tatum Police Department and the Jal Police Department, and is part of the NM HIDTA Region VI Drug Task Force.  The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program was created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988.  HIDTA is a program of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) which provides assistance to federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug-trafficking regions of the United States and seeks to reduce drug trafficking and production by facilitating coordinated law enforcement activities and information sharing.