Chicago-area man sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for trafficking fentanyl from China
CHICAGO — A suburban Chicago man was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in federal prison for his role in transporting fentanyl and other drugs into the United States from China, and selling them on the streets of Chicago.
This sentence was announced by the following agency heads: U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch Jr., Northern District of Illinois; Special Agent in Charge James M. Gibbons, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Chicago; and Inspector in Charge Craig Goldberg, U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Chicago.
Nestor Burgos, 32, of River Grove, Illinois, pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal drug and firearm charges.
“Criminals like Burgos are profiting from deadly addictions, and the snares of these addictions entrap more people every day,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge Gibbons. “Let this sentence serve as a reminder that HSI works tirelessly with our law enforcement and judicial partners to bring to justice those who supply our streets with fentanyl and other deadly synthetic opioids.”
Burgos admitted dealing narcotics and possessing two handguns and a silencer in furtherance of his drug trafficking activities.
“Fentanyl is a powerfully lethal opioid which defendant brought to the streets of Chicago,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry M. Kinney argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Words cannot begin to describe the horrific damage that fentanyl has unleashed upon American society.”
U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis, Northern District of Illinois, imposed this 15-year prison sentence.
Burgos admitted in a plea agreement that in the summer of 2017 he worked with Rolando Estrada to transport fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, heroin and cocaine via mail from China to Chicago.
At the time, Estrada, formerly of Elmwood Park, Illinois, was residing in Mexico and had ordered the drugs via the internet.
After selling the fentanyl and other drugs in the Chicago area, Burgos used bitcoins to pay Estrada a portion of the illicit proceeds.
Estrada was also criminally charged as part of this investigation. He was arrested in April 2018 in Querètaro, Mexico. After being extradited to Chicago, Estrada pleaded guilty to federal drug charges earlier this month before U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman. Estrada admitted in a plea declaration that he trafficked cocaine and a fentanyl analogue in the Chicago area in 2015 and 2016.
Judge Guzman set Estrada’s sentencing for Feb. 19.
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