Jury Convicts Omaha Man for Distributing Methamphetamine

United States Attorney Lesley A. Woods announced that on August 26, 2026, a federal jury returned guilty verdicts against Juan Carlos Cardenas Portugal, 46, of Omaha, Nebraska, for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and distribution of methamphetamine. The verdicts followed a two-and-a-half-day trial in front of United States District Judge Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. Sentencing is scheduled for December 4, 2026. Cardenas Portugal faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life imprisonment.

Cardenas Portugal's charges stem from his involvement with a Mexico source of supply of methamphetamine who supplies the Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa areas with methamphetamine via a local network of drug couriers. Customers contact the source via Telegram, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger and order the drugs. The source then sends a local courier previously supplied with drugs to meet the customer and complete the transaction.

The evidence at trial established that in February 2025, an undercover officer ordered one pound of methamphetamine from the Mexican source of supply. The same day the source sent the undercover to Cardenas Portugal's Omaha residence where Cardenas Portugal sold the officer one pound of methamphetamine. A few weeks later officers executed a search warrant on the residence and seized approximately 3 pounds of methamphetamine and evidence of drug trafficking.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Omaha comprises agents and officers from HSI, FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service, USPIS, the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division, and assistance of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Nebraska.