A San Diego mother of three was sentenced this week to nearly six years in federal prison for her role in a Baja California-based drug trafficking ring operated by her brother who a judge said likely brought “ thousands of pounds of drugs” in the United States.
His conviction, along with several other recent plea deals and convictions, stem from a 14-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in May that charges 17 people with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine. The woman convicted on Monday, Angela Diana Guerrero, pleaded guilty to that charge and one count of money laundering, while several other members of the alleged conspiracy were charged with importing drugs or possessing drugs with intent to distribute.
As of Wednesday, the leader of the trafficking ring was still at large. Although his name remains sealed on the indictment, court records and courtroom testimony identified him as Israel Guerrero, the brother of the woman convicted Monday. The name of another top defendant in the case also remains sealed and that person remains at large.
Prosecutors said the indictment was the result of a federal task force investigation dubbed “Operation Big Mouth” that resulted in the seizure of more than 340 pounds of methamphetamine, 130 pounds of cocaine, 23 pounds of fentanyl and 6 pounds of heroin. Federal agents also seized at least 13 firearms and $55,000 tied to the trafficking ring, according to court records.
U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel said Monday that those numbers only represent “what we know,” but it’s likely the group had already smuggled “thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Sausedo declined to say Wednesday whether the group had ties to Mexican cartels, but said the group “clearly had substantial sources of supply in order to obtain the quantities (of drugs) they brought into the country”.
Sausedo said federal agents began investigating the group in July 2021 and by May made dozens of drug seizures typically totaling between 45 and 90 pounds. Sausedo told a judge during a detention hearing for one of the defendants that the group transported the drugs across the border in buckets believed to contain building materials like drywall mud .
According to a sentencing memorandum for one of the defendants, these drugs were later transferred to cities in California, as well as Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming.
An attorney for Angela Guerrero declined to comment on his client’s behalf due to parts of the case remaining sealed, but in sentencing and court documents, the attorney said his client’s brother was the one who involved her in the group.
Curiel sentenced another defendant, Elizabeth Allison Edelman, to 13 years in prison. Sausedo said Edelman received the longer sentence because she not only smuggled drugs across the border, but also ran her own distribution network in the Bay Area.
The highest-ranking defendant who has so far been taken into custody, Danny Lamar Miller-Kidd, is expected to plead guilty in the case next week. His role in organizing trafficking remains unclear based on the records that are public in the case.
Court records show Miller-Kidd, who lives in Nevada, was released in August after his initial arrest. But he was arrested again in October and has remained in custody ever since, after Las Vegas police pulled him over for a traffic violation and searched his black Cadillac STS luxury sedan. Inside the vehicle, they allegedly found a short-barreled shotgun without a serial number, numerous high-capacity magazines, including drum-type magazines, body armor, and several pieces of firearms typically used for craft ghost guns.