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Press Release

Another South Texan Heads to Federal Prison in Large-Scale Drug-Trafficking Conspiracy

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Rodolfo Casares, 38, of Brownsville, has been ordered to federal prison following his convictions on one count of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking and two counts of possession with intent to distribute controlled substances - methamphetamine and cocaine, respectively, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. The jury deliberated for two hours and returned the guilty verdicts Jan. 22, 2015, following a two-day trial.

Today, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, who presided over the trial, handed Casares a total sentence of 25 years in federal prison to be immediately followed by five years of supervised release.

At trial, the jury heard from 10 government witnesses, which included testimony that Casares supplied heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine to a major drug trafficking organization headquartered in Mathis and lead by Ricardo Guerrero, 56, of Mathis. On March 18, 2014, Guerrero was convicted by a federal jury in Corpus Christi for being the leader of this conspiracy and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment on June 5, 2014.

Casares was involved in the conspiracy from 2009 through most of 2012 and utilized his connections in Mexico to obtain the illegal narcotics and had them crossed into the United States at Brownsville, McAllen or Laredo. Once here, the illegal narcotics were then transported to Guerrero and stored in numerous properties Guerrero owned in Mathis and in neighboring counties.

Guerrero then made the arrangements to sell the heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine throughout the Southern District of Texas and in San Antonio. On Aug. 20, 2011, three conspirators that Casares had hired were arrested at the U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint at Hebbronville while attempting to transport methamphetamine and cocaine to Guerrero.

Trial testimony also provided that Guerrero’s criminal organization was moving kilogram amounts of methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine at least once or twice a month during the conspiracy.

Casares will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future

Those charged in relation to this case were identified through a long-term investigation conducted jointly by Homeland Security Investigations and Texas Department of Public Safety in coordination with the United States Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad W. Cowan is prosecuting the case.

Updated July 7, 2015