A drug trafficker has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after he was found guilty of retrieving methamphetamine from a stash house in Dallas.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton made the announcement in a press release on May 3.
Omar Jorge Valle Estrada, 37, a Mexican citizen, was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine in December 2022.
U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr, who presided over Estrada’s trial, sentenced him Tuesday, May 2, according to the release. Estrada faced up to a maximum of life in prison.
According to evidence presented to the court at his trial, law enforcement was watching a stash house on Holcomb Road in Dallas.
Law enforcement watched as Estrada drove up to the home in a white Chevy Malibu.
Estrada used a code word to gain access to the home, which authorities said was being used by a “transnational criminal organization.”
The residence was being used to store nearly $10 million worth of Mexican methamphetamine.
As law enforcement continued to observe the property, two men emerged from the home carrying duffle bags.
Officers witnessed the men placing the bags in the rear passenger seat of Estrada’s car.
When Estrada left the home, officers conducted a traffic stop for an expired registration and discovered 120 pounds of crystal methamphetamine inside the duffel bags.
“Experts put the street value of the methamphetamine, which was 99% pure, between $1.1 and $2.2 million,” the release read.
The two men inside the home were identified by law enforcement as Angel Cabrera and Joaquin Salinas.
Both men admitted they were holding millions of dollars in methamphetamine inside boxes of cauliflower.
After pleading guilty, Salinas received a life sentence, and Cabrera received more than 21 years in prison.
Testimony at the sentencing showed Salinas had ties to the Sureños XIII criminal street gang and the Puro Tango Blast street and prison gang.
Dallas crime continues to increase, and the city has seen over 3,100 drug cases year-to-date, according to the Dallas crime analytics overview dashboard, an increase of nearly 7% from the same period last year.