ABINGDON, Va. – Attorney General Miyares has announced that Alonso Cantu-Cantu, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced on Thursday (Aug. 10) to 25 years in federal prison. A jury convicted Cantu-Cantu in April of trafficking large quantities of high-purity methamphetamine from Mexico into Southwest Virginia.
Cantu-Cantu was the major source of supply for a drug conspiracy that distributed more than 33 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and 6 kilograms of cocaine into Southwest and Central Virginia through a multi-jurisdictional drug trafficking organization.
Evidence presented at trial showed that Cantu-Cantu received methamphetamine in 55-gallon drums that had been transported into the United States in water tankers directly from sources in Mexico. Cantu-Cantu then directed the drugs through distributors from Indiana, who ultimately distributed down the supply chain throughout the Western District of Virginia, from Harrisonburg to Bristol, Virginia. Many of these transactions were orchestrated through another major drug trafficker who was incarcerated in multiple Virginia prisons throughout the conspiracy.
In all, the estimated street value of the methamphetamine and cocaine distributed during the course of the conspiracy was more than $1.4 million. Over 4.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, 125.4 grams of heroin, 94 grams of cocaine, and 7 firearms were seized, and 26 defendants have now been convicted over the course of the six-year investigation, which started with the investigation of street level dealers in the Smyth County, Virginia, area.
United States Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, and Special Agent in Charge Jared Forget of the DEA’s Washington Division made the announcement.
This investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration-Washington Field Division’s Bristol Post of Duty with assistance from the Smyth County Virginia Sheriff’s Office. Numerous other agencies also provided assistance throughout the investigation including the Drug Enforcement Administration in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Birmingham, Alabama, the Washington County Virginia Sheriff’s Office, the Abingdon, Virginia Police Department, the Rockingham County Virginia RUSH Drug Task Force, the Rockingham County, Virginia Sheriff’s Office, the Harrisonburg, Virginia Police Department, the Bessemer, Alabama Police Department, the Virginia Department of Corrections, the Virginia Department of Corrections Probation and Parole Unit, and the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority.
Special Assistant United States Attorney M. Suzanne Kerney-Quillen, a Senior Assistant Attorney General with the Virginia Attorney General’s Major Crimes and Emerging Threats Section, and Assistant United States Attorney Lena L. Busscher prosecuted the case for the United States.
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