Four members of a drug trafficking organization (DTO) that trafficked methamphetamine and cocaine from California to Pennsylvania have been sentenced to prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced on February 21.
Aived Abel Garcia, 26, of Chula Vista, California, was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for his role in the operation. Garcia traveled from California to Pennsylvania to pick up narcotic shipments, collect money owed, and deposit funds into a bank account, authorities said.
Miguel Aliaga, 37, of Whitehall, Pennsylvania, and Avrian Haywood Mack, 22, of Reading, Pennsylvania, were sentenced earlier this month to five years in prison each for distributing bulk quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine for the DTO.
The organization’s leader, Michael Sanchez, 33, of Los Angeles, was sentenced in January to 14½ years in prison. Sanchez, who managed the DTO, organized and oversaw shipments of drugs from California to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where associates would distribute the narcotics.
“These defendants took part in a cross-country conspiracy that brought significant amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine from California to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Nelson S.T. Thayer, Jr.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office affirmed its commitment to working with law enforcement partners at all levels to investigate and prosecute traffickers, removing illegal drugs from the streets and making communities safer.
