HSI Nogales, multiagency case results in indictments for Malas Manas leaders for human smuggling and drug trafficking
US Department of the Treasury follows with significant sanctions
NOGALES, Ariz. — A multicount indictment was unsealed Dec. 13 charging leaders of the Malas Manas transnational criminal organization with their involvement in prolific human smuggling and drug trafficking. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Strike Force in Tucson investigated this case.
“By targeting cartels and smugglers such as Malas Manas, we are effectively disrupting transnational criminal organizations who take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants and who also seek to pollute our country with drugs,” said HSI Arizona Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown. “The success of this multiyear investigation is largely in part due to exceptional collaboration and cooperation between HSI in Nogales, the DEA in Tucson, and U.S. Border Patrol in Sonoita, Arizona, and the Tucson U.S. Attorney’s Office, as well as excellent relationships with the government of Mexico. The sanctions announced today will significantly diminish the TCO’s ability to access their illicit proceeds by directly impeding their financial operations.”
On Nov.29, a federal grand jury in Tucson returned an 11-count indictment against Jorge Damian Roman-Figueroa, Luis Eduardo Roman-Flores, Manuel Jose Bernal, Joel Salazar-Ballesteros and Jesus Armando Gonzalez-Villela, citizens of Mexico, for conspiracy to transport aliens; conspiracy to launder monetary instruments; conspiracy to distribute marijuana, methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine; distribution of marijuana, methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine; and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
“These actions are the latest in a long line of the Justice Department’s efforts to dismantle, piece-by-piece, violent cartels like Malasa Manas and Sinaloa,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We will continue to target and prosecute the leaders and associates of the criminal groups responsible for poisoning the American people with fentanyl and endangering vulnerable migrants for profit.”
The indictment alleges that defendants Jorge Damian Roman-Figueroa aka Soldado, Luis Eduardo Roman-Flores, Manuel Jose Bernal aka Peque, and Joel Salazar-Ballesteros aka Catorce, are members of the Malas Manas transnational criminal organization operating in the Santa Cruz and Mascarenas areas of Mexico with permission from the Sinaloa Cartel.
The indictment alleges that these defendants operated a human smuggling organization as part of the Malas Manas transnational criminal organization, trafficked drugs and laundered the proceeds of both criminal activities. More specifically, the indictment alleges that beginning at an unknown time but including December 2020 and continuing through Nov. 12, 2021, defendants Roman-Figueroa, Roman-Flores, Bernal and Salazar-Ballesteros conspired to transport aliens within the United States as part of the Malas Manas organization.
The indictment alleges that between January 2019 and August 2023, defendants Roman-Figueroa, Roman-Flores and Salazar-Ballesteros conspired to launder the profits of alien smuggling and drug smuggling through the movement of monetary instruments from the United States to the Republic of Mexico.
The indictment further alleges that from 2019 until 2023 Roman-Figueroa, Bernal, Salazar-Ballesteros and Gonzalez-Villela conspired to distribute and did distribute various quantities of fentanyl, marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine. Finally, the indictment alleges that Bernal brandished a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime involving methamphetamine on Feb. 3, 2021. The most serious of these crimes carries a minimum mandatory term of 10 years and up to a maximum term of life in prison, and a fine of up to $10 million.
“The facts alleged here illustrate the breadth and diversity of the harmful actions by transnational criminal organizations,” said U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino. “This case isn’t about just guns, or drugs. or aliens. In our continuing efforts to safeguard and bolster border communities, we look forward to establishing the interconnectedness of these three related crimes.”
An indictment is simply a method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. This case also involves the OCDETF Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence driven, multi-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona is prosecuting this case.
HSI is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move. HSI’s workforce of more than 8,700 employees consists of more than 6,000 special agents assigned to 237 cities throughout the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’ largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
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