6 Illegal Immigrants Tied To Mexican Drug Cartel Arrested For Trafficking Mass Amounts Of Meth And Cocaine

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, NC — Authorities have arrested six illegal immigrants accused of trafficking a large amount of narcotics throughout several states, including North Carolina, Georgia and Texas.

Federal court documents say Oscar Rangel-Gutierrez, Regulo Rangel-Gutierrez, Francisco Garcia-Martinez, Rodolfo Martinez, Raul Rangel-Gutierrez and Rigoberto Rangel-Gutierrez “conspired with each other and with other persons to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute” more than 500 grams of methamphetamine and more than five kilograms of cocaine.

Investigators say they believe the elaborate trafficking network has been operating in Mecklenburg and Iredell Counties since 2013.

According to the documents, Oscar Rangel-Gutierrez was the primary target of the investigation. The criminal complaint describes him as a “high-level United States-side Cartel member operating under the umbrella of the Jalisco New Generation/Gulf Cartel.”

The cartel is a known rival to the Sinaloa Cartel, which was led by the notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Since March of 2018, authorities say they have been receiving information from a confidential informant who met Oscar five years earlier and immediately began transporting large sums of cash obtained through narcotic sales to various locations within North Carolina.

In the criminal complaint, the informant says Oscar transported “approximately 30 kilograms of cocaine and an unspecified large quantity of methamphetamine in a one-month period from Texas to Georgia and North Carolina.”

In July 2018, investigators began using the informant to help carry out several narcotics operations involving each of the defendants named in the criminal complaint.

Those operations included transactions at several locations throughout the Charlotte and Statesville areas. Based on information from another informant in 2014, authorities believe an additional home in Troutman was also being used to store large amounts of cocaine.

That home is owned by Oscar’s in-laws, according to the court documents, and is believed to be the home of Rodolfo.

“Members of the investigative team believe – based on wire intercepts, surveillance and other facts discovered from the investigation – that Oscar and Regulo transport illicit proceeds, derived from the sales of narcotics, when they travel from Myrtle Beach to Charlotte,” according to the federal court documents.

The criminal complaint says investigators witnessed the men driving from their work site in Myrtle Beach directly to Charlotte, without stopping, for a meeting to arrange the purchase of several kilograms of cocaine in Texas.

A vehicle with South Carolina tags and registered to Francisco was then driven from Myrtle Beach to Houston with $80,000 to buy three kilos of cocaine.

All of the defendants were arrested on or around February 11th. Court documents say they were in the United States illegally.

Authorities say these arrests come amid the controversial ICE raids that have taken place throughout North Carolina over the past few weeks, including Mecklenburg County where four of the suspects were arrested.

You can read the full indictment by clicking HERE.