TEXARKANA, Texas -A New Boston, Texas, man who worked as a driver in a drug trafficking operation that moved kilos of heroin, cocaine and fentanyl and large amounts of currency between the U.S. and Mexico was sentenced Friday to a six-year federal prison term.
Oscar Alan Chavez-Belman pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to traffic cocaine, heroin and fentanyl. His co-defendant, Armando Moya, was found guilty last month by a jury in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas of conspiracy to traffic heroin, cocaine and fentanyl and of carrying a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense. He faces a minimum of 35 years at sentencing and is the only person charged in the case who did not enter into a plea agreement with the government.
Chavez-Belman drove cars loaded with drugs and cash on at least 14 occasions beginning in late 2017 and up until the arrest of Armando Moya and Armando Moya's brother, Jose Moya, in June 2018. Jose Moya was stopped driving in south Texas with two women he'd recruited to act as mules. Nine kilogram bundles of heroin and one kilogram bundle of fentanyl were recovered.
The drugs were bound for Armando Moya's home in New Boston where investigators discovered a large stash of cash which was to be picked up by Jose Moya and delivered to a cartel contact in Mexico, witnesses at Armando Moya's trial testified. Armando Moya and Chavez intended to take the drugs to one of several northern states.
Jose Moya and the women were charged in a federal court in south Texas. Armando Moya and Chavez-Belman were indicted in Texarkana. Another man who testified that he accepted large deliveries of drugs from Armando Moya and Chavez-Belman is charged in Illinois.
At Friday's hearing, DEA Case Agent Maximo Mella testified that the states to which Chavez-Belman was driving large amounts of drugs are among those hardest hit by the opioid crisis. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Hornok argued that Chavez-Belman deserves a greater punishment because the fentanyl he helped move into areas wrecked by the opioid crisis is fueling overdose deaths and adding to the problem in a variety of ways.
Chavez-Belman's lawyer, Charles Van Cleef of Longview, Texas, argued that his client wasn't a principal player in the trafficking scheme.
"A mule drives by himself, a driver rides with his boss," Van Cleef said.
Hornok pointed out that Chavez not only drove but helped to remove drugs secreted in a door panel on at least one occasion and had sent Armando Moya a photo of a handgun never recovered in the investigation. Chavez-Belman's factual basis document notes that he accepts responsibility for trafficking 90 or more kilos of heroin, 9 kilos of fentanyl and at least 5 kilos of cocaine.
"They were going to the hotbeds of the opiate crisis," Mella said under questioning from Hornok.
At one point during the hearing, U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III called a brief recess after Chavez-Belman, who used an interpreter during the hearing, claimed to be suffering from a panic attack, which Mella testified Chavez-Belman had suffered before.
When he announced a sentence of 78 months in federal prison, Schroeder spoke of the "extensive amount of drugs" and mentioned that Chavez-Belman is likely to be deported upon his release from prison.
"I hope you will use this time to develop or learn a trade or something of that nature," Schroeder said. "You're not the first person to make this mistake. I hope you'll improve yourself and improve the outcome of your life."