Description: Fayetteville, Arkansas criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with Aiding and Abetting the Possession with Intent to Distribute a Mixture or Substance Containing a Detectable amount of Methamphetamine.

The Drug Enforcement Administration identified a mobile home in rural Benton County, Arkansas as a location which was receiving packages containing controlled substances, to include methamphetamine and fentanyl. Surveillance on the location revealed that Alfredo Vladimir Andrade Medina, age 30, and Kevin Heriberto Gonzalez-Gonzalez, age 24, were regularly accessing the mobile home. Medina and Gonzalez are both of Nayarit, Mexico, but residing in Springdale under assumed names which they utilized to regularly wire United States Currency in amounts just under one-thousand dollars to Mexico.

Based upon this information, on February 8, 2023, the DEA served federal search warrants on the Benton County mobile home and the apartment where Medina and Gonzalez were residing in Springdale. Inside the kitchen of the mobile home, the DEA located quantities of controlled substances to include fentanyl powder, fentanyl pills, and over 4 kilograms of methamphetamine. Inside the Springdale apartment where Medina and Gonzalez resided, the DEA located $22,168 in United States Currency which was admitted by Medina to be cash derived from drug sales that was to be wired back to Mexico in amounts of less than one-thousand dollars per transaction.

On March 8, 2023, Medina and Gonzalez were Indicted by a Grand Jury sitting in the Western District of Arkansas for their offenses. On April 27, 2023, Medina entered a plea of guilty, followed on May 3, 2023, by a plea of guilty by Gonzalez. Both defendants were convicted of Aiding and Abetting in the Possession with Intent to Distribute a Mixture or Substance Containing a Detectable Amount of Methamphetamine.

Gonzalez was sentenced on September 15, 2023, to 15 years in the United States Bureau of Prisons and $500.00 in fines and costs. On November 7, 2023, Medina was sentenced to 19 years in the Bureau of Prisons and $1,000.00 in fines and costs.

U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes of the Western District of Arkansas made the announcement.

The Drug Enforcement Administration investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Carter prosecuted the case for the United States.

Today’s announcement is part of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program. The OCDETF program is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s drug supply reduction strategy. OCDETF was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multilevel attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. Today, OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its member federal agencies in cooperation with state and local law enforcement. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illicit drug supply.

Outcome: 11/13/2023 64 JUDGMENT as to Alfredo Vladimir Andrade Medina (1), Counts 1, 2-3, 5, 6, Dismissed on the motion of the USA. Count 4, Sentenced to two hundred and twenty-eight (228) months imprisonment with no term of supervised release imposed; $900.00 fine; $100.00 special assessment. Signed by Honorable Timothy L. Brooks on November 13, 2023. (cc via CM/ECF: U.S. Probation Office, U.S. Marshals Service) (bjb) (Entered: 11/13/2023)
11/13/2023 65 STATEMENT OF REASONS as to Alfredo Vladimir Andrade Medina filed pursuant to the entry of the 64 Judgment.

THIS DOCUMENT IS FILED UNDER SEAL.
Signed by Honorable Timothy L. Brooks on November 13, 2023. (cc via CM/ECF: U.S. Probation Office, U.S. Marshals Service) (bjb) (Entered: 11/13/2023)

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