3 Mexican drug ring members sentenced
SAN FRANCISCO
The three men - Anthony Johnston, Vincente Franco Escalera and
Jose Ceja Mendoza - were among nine people arrested on Feb. 4, 2009, in a
federal sweep that was part of an effort to cut off drug and weapons
trafficking from Mexico.
All nine have pleaded guilty to various charges, and all but two
have now been sentenced.
Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer sentenced
the ring's leader, Rafael Franco Perez, 39, of Redwood City, to 30 years in
prison. He gave Perez's top lieutenant, Cornelio Mata Espinoza, 31, of
Richmond, a prison term of 25 years and 10 months.
Both Perez and Espinoza will be deported to Mexico after
completing their sentences, according to prosecutors.
Breyer imposed the three most recent sentences on Wednesday.
He sentenced Johnston, 53, of San Francisco, to 14 years in
prison. Prosecutors described him as a street-level dealer of methamphetamine
and heroin provided by the ring.
Johnston admitted during his guilty plea on Sept. 23 to selling an
undercover federal agent in San Francisco a total of nearly five pounds of
heroin, 1.5 ounces of methamphetamine, and a gun between 2006 and 2009,
according to court documents.
He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute the two
drugs and one count of having been an ex-felon in possession of a gun.
Escalera, 49, of Stockton, who acted as a driver and distributor
for Perez, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in January
to one count of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and heroin and one
count of possession of methamphetamine.
Mendoza, age unknown, of Los Banos in Merced County, was given a
prison term of five years and 10 months. He pleaded guilty in June to
conspiring to distribute the two drugs.
Prosecutors described Mendoza as a "one-time courier" who drove a
truck with nearly 15 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a secret compartment
from Mexico to Northern California in 2008.
