Marshalltown Man Sentenced to Prison for Conspiring to Distribute Methamphetamine

A man who conspired to distribute methamphetamine was sentenced June 11, 2026, to more than eight years in federal prison.

Juan Eduardo Rivas Martinez, age 25, from Marshalltown, Iowa, received the prison term after a January 12, 2026, guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance.

Information at the sentencing hearing showed that on June 11, 2024, Martinez distributed over 450 grams of ice methamphetamine to a confidential informant. After that transaction, law enforcement officers attempted to stop Martinez but he fled from the officers on a bicycle. Martinez crashed the bicycle he was riding and continued to flee on foot. Officers caught Martinez. Martinez had over $1,000 in his possession. As Martinez was fleeing, he threw a bag to the ground. Officers found and searched the bag and found over 440 grams of ice methamphetamine inside.

Martinez was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Martinez was sentenced to 97 months' imprisonment. He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Martinez is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

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 Kansas City is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, covering Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. HSTF Kansas City is composed of agents and officers from the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Marshals Service, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the State Investigative Agencies for Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, and the Kansas City Missouri Police Department.

This HSTF case was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Michael S.A. Hudson and investigated by HSTF Kansas City, with the assistance of the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force consisting of the Waterloo Police Department, Cedar Falls Police Department, Black Hawk County Sheriff's Department, Evansdale Police Department, Waverly Police Department, Hudson Police Department, La Porte City Police Department, and the Bremer County Sheriff's Department, and the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.plLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..

The case file number is 25-CR-2033-005.

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