Honduran National Extradited to the United States for Fentanyl Trafficking

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - An indictment was unsealed today charging Honduran national Abner Estrada Cruz, 25, with conspiracy to distribute at least 400 grams fentanyl and seven counts of distributing fentanyl, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced.

Estrada Cruz was extradited from Honduras to the United States to face the charges against him.

The indictment stems from a two-year DEA-led multi-agency investigation into a Honduran fentanyl drug trafficking ring operating out of Honduras, San Francisco, California, and Portland, Oregon. During the course of the investigation, DEA seized more than 16 pounds of fentanyl powder trafficked into the Eastern District of California from Estrada Cruz's co-conspirators. Those co-conspirators - Yahir Alexander Arteaga Cruz, Carlos Samir Colindrez-Erazo, and Aronis Jose Hernandez Aguilar - have been charged in the same conspiracy by separate indictment in the Eastern District of California in Sacramento (2:24-cr-0246-DAD). Several additional members of the Drug Trafficking Organization were indicted in the District of Oregon in Portland.

Estrada Cruz acted as the operations manager of the organization, taking orders, arranging deliveries, and helping to run the organization from San Francisco, Portland, and Honduras. He was arrested in Honduras and surrendered to the United States following extradition proceedings.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from the California Department of Justice Bureau of Investigation Fentanyl Task Force, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron L. Desmond is prosecuting the case.

The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Honduras to secure the arrest and extradition of Estrada Cruz.

If convicted of the conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, Estrada Cruz faces a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a $10 million fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. The specific mission of the OCDETF Sacramento Strike Force is to identify, investigate, and prosecute the most significant criminal organizations operating in the Eastern District of California. OCDETF Sacramento Strike Force is composed of agents and officers from DEA, FBI, HSI, IRS-CI, USMS, ATF, USPIS, BLM, USFS, the Sacramento Sheriff's Office, the California National Guard, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the California Department of Justice, and the Central Valley California HIDTA.