LAFAYETTE, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that a Moss Bluff man was sentenced Thursday to 98 months in prison for operating a marijuana sales and transport conspiracy that stretched from Texas to Louisiana.
Daniel Cantu-Lopez, 43, of Moss Bluff, La., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard T. Haik on one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana. He was also sentenced to five years of supervised release. According to evidence presented at the March 11, 2015 guilty plea, Cantu-Lopez was warehousing large quantities of marijuana in Houston and distributing it out of his trailer in Moss Bluff. He directed the transport and sales of marijuana from June 2013 to September of 2013 from locations in Texas and Louisiana. During the course of the investigation, 4.9 kilograms of marijuana were seized from Juan Antonio Garcia on June 25, 2013 during a traffic stop in Vinton, La.; 453 grams of marijuana were seized on July 1, 2013 from Bertoldo Tolo Labra while being delivered to Moss Bluff; 380 kilograms of marijuana were seized on July 13, 2013 in George West, Texas, from Jamie Garza who was driving a truck and horse trailer; 4.5 kilograms of marijuana were purchased by an undercover agent on July 17, 2013 from Cantu-Lopez’s associate Lisa Diane Long in Moss Bluff; and 537 kilograms of marijuana were seized in Houston on September 13, 2013 from a pickup truck driven by Garcia.
Long, 51, of Lake Charles, was sentenced on November 11, 2014 to time served and one year of supervised release for one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana. On February 5, 2015, Garcia, 59, of Nueva Laredo, Mexico, was sentenced to 44 months in prison and three years of supervised release, and Labra 32, of Morelos, Mexico, was sentenced to time served and two years of supervised release for one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Garza, 47, of Edinburg, Texas, was sentenced on August 11, 2015 to 83 months in prison and four years of supervised release for one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.
The defendants were arrested as part of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Operation “Cajun Gallo.” The DEA, the George West Texas Police Department, and the Houston Police Department participated in this OCDETF investigation. The OCDETF program is a joint federal, state and local cooperative approach to combat drug trafficking and is the nation’s primary tool for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations, targeting national and regional level drug trafficking organizations, and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Howard C. Parker and Robert F. Moore prosecuted the case.