CLEVELAND (WJW) – A Mexican national was sentenced to prison for helping traffic more than 100 pounds of cocaine to the Cleveland area.
According to the Department of Justice on Wednesday, 49-year-old Dionicio Galindo-Salinas, of Mexico, was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine back in April.
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According to court documents, a co-conspirator, 45-year-old Earl King of Cleveland, would travel to the US-Mexico border to buy cocaine in bulk from Galindo-Salinas.
Those drugs would then be shipped to the Cleveland area through a UPS-Staples store in Brownsville, Texas, court records showed.
According to the DOJ, investigators learned that King was making regular trips from Cleveland to Brownsville since 2020. Investigators said King bought at least 47 kilograms (or more than 100 pounds) of cocaine from Galindo-Salinas during this time.
The lead federal investigator said during testimony that the drugs would have an estimated street value of more than $2 million in Cleveland.
King was previously sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement in the drug trafficking scheme.
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According to court records, two other Cleveland men have been sentenced in the case. Curtis Anderson, who obtained and resold cocaine in the Cleveland area, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Donnell Gochett, 42, was sentenced to eight years in prison for providing King with Cleveland addresses where the packages of cocaine could be shipped.
“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 with the Northern District of Ohio in a release. “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,” ICE HSI Detroit acting Special Agent in Charge Jared Murphey added.
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