DeForest Cocaine Trafficker Sentenced to 3 Years Prison

MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Braulio Martinez Salazar, 31, DeForest, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 3 years in federal prison for attempting to distribute cocaine.  Martinez Salazar pleaded guilty to this charge on December 16, 2024.

In late 2022 and early 2023, investigators with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating a cocaine trafficking organization operating in the DeForest and Madison area. Through intercepted phone calls and surveillance of Martinez Salazar, investigators learned that he was picking up a half kilogram of cocaine on June 1, 2023, to deliver to a customer of the organization in the Madison area. When Martinez Salazar was in route to meet the customer, he was stopped by a Dane County Sheriff’s deputy.  During the stop, a narcotics dog alerted on the car and officers found the ½ kilogram of cocaine hidden in the car. From the investigation, officers believe the drug trafficking organization was distributing kilograms quantities of cocaine.

In choosing a sentence, Judge Peterson balanced Martinez Salazar’s lack of criminal history or prior arrests with the fact that he was part of a substantial drug conspiracy that caused harm to the community.  Judge Peterson concluded that the quantity of drugs involved in the case warranted a significant sentence.   

The charge against Martinez Salazar was the result of an investigation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, Dane County Narcotics Task Force, and Madison Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Anderson and William M. Levins prosecuted this case.

The investigation was conducted and funded by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a multi-agency task force that coordinates long-term narcotics trafficking investigations.