A major federal enforcement sweep in North and East Texas has taken five drug traffickers off the streets, landing them a combined 903 months in federal prison.
The sentences, handed down throughout June 2026, mark the latest wave of convictions under the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF). This multi-agency initiative was created under Executive Order 14159, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” a whole-of-government partnership focused on dismantling cartels, human trafficking rings, and transnational gangs.
U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs announced the final tallies for the five separate cases, which ranging from bulk methamphetamine distribution to counterfeit fentanyl operations.
The lockups began on June 9, 2026, when David Ortiz-Moreno, a 55-year-old Mexican national living illegally in Fate, Texas, received a 170-month sentence. Federal prosecutors proved his involvement in a conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, holding him responsible for at least 50 grams of the drug.
The following day, June 10, saw two more major sentences. Abrahan Solano-Zarate, 42, another Mexican national living illegally in Dallas, was ordered to serve 168 months in federal prison. Solano-Zarate was convicted for his role in a conspiracy to distribute at least five kilograms of cocaine.
Also on June 10, 35-year-old Jose Pedro Guzman, Jr. of Corrigan, Texas, received a 130-month sentence. Guzman was the final defendant sentenced in a massive, multi-target methamphetamine conspiracy. In total, that single investigation led to the conviction of 17 individuals, racking up a collective 2,213 months—more than 184 years—of prison time.
The steep penalties continued into the middle of the month. On June 15, 2026, Juan Lopez-Carmona, a 32-year-old Mexican national living illegally in Dallas, was sentenced to 270 months in federal prison. Investigators tied Lopez-Carmona to the transportation of large quantities of narcotics directly from Mexico into the United States for local redistribution.
The final sentencing on June 15 targeted the regional fentanyl trade. Dulio Ariel De-La-O, 25, of Irving, Texas, was sentenced to 165 months in federal prison. De-La-O was caught trafficking “k-packs”—slang for batches of 1,000 pills—of fentanyl-laced narcotics. A federal raid on his home turned up more than 3,000 counterfeit Xanax pills containing fentanyl, alongside $91,799 in cash.
The operations were coordinated by HSTF Dallas, which pools resources from a long list of federal agencies, including the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the DEA, the ATF, the IRS Criminal Investigation division, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Federal Air Marshal Service, the Secret Service, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, TEXOMA HIDTA, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
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