Chapel Hill.- The Orange Sheriff and the DEA accuse a young Latino from California of being a “primary” supplier of drugs to students at some of the most prestigious universities in North Carolina.
During a conference to discover the drug trafficking network that both agencies investigated together for three years, Francisco Javier Ochoa and twenty other people were singled out for participating in the sale and distribution of marijuana, cocaine and other drugs within the campuses of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Duke University in Durham and Appalachian State University in Boone.
Many of those involved are members of or related to three fraternities that exist within these universities: Phi Gamma Delta, Kappa Sigma and Beta Theta Pi.
“No one is above the law, including college students and fraternity members at elite universities. This serious drug trade is destructive and reckless and many lives have been ruined, ”said US Attorney Matthew Martin in the media presentation.
Fraternities are social groups of students at universities that form “brotherhood” ties. Between 2017 and this year, more than a thousand pounds of marijuana, hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and other drugs were introduced into universities through this drug trafficking network, with profits that exceeded one and a half million dollars.
The cocaine was shipped from California to North Carolina through the mail and the marijuana was transported by car, authorities reported. Money to pay for the merchandise was sent in bundles of bills by the postal service or through wire transfers, Western Union, and phone apps.
In addition to Chapel Hill, the drugs were being shipped to Boone, Charlotte and Wilmington, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Ochoa Jr, 27, was sentenced a few weeks ago in federal court, accused of plotting the distribution of cocaine and marijuana. From California, between March 2017 and March 2019, the Hispanic would have supplied 200 pounds of marijuana and two kilograms of cocaine per week to his contact in North Carolina, who is now cooperating with the authorities.
The Hispanic was sentenced to six years in prison, five years of probation and to restore $ 250,000 to the government.
The other Hispanics who appear on the list of those involved are: Mariela Zavala Mendoza, alias María Ochoa, of Turlock, California; Edison Torres Robles, alias Francisco Gallego Mendez Rodríguez, 26, from Durham; as well as Christopher Antonio Reyes, 26, of Greensboro.
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