PLANO, Texas — Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Texas charged 25 defendants, secured five convictions, and sentenced five others to a combined 944 months in federal prison in Homeland Security Task Force cases during May, U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs announced.
The office brought eight new HSTF cases during the month, part of the initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The task force targets criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.
Among those sentenced, Donald Lee Harris, 40, of Fort Worth, received 350 months in federal prison for trafficking over three kilograms of methamphetamine brought from Mexico for distribution in the United States. Mauricio Diaz-Abraham, 37, a Mexican national illegally living in Arlington, was sentenced to 240 months for personally distributing at least 4.5 kilograms of methamphetamine while conspiring to traffic large amounts of the drug from Mexico into the Eastern District of Texas. Angel Luis Lopez-Montero, 45, a Mexican national illegally living in Dallas, received 18 years for trafficking at least 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.
Juan Jose Montanez, 40, also known as Happy Johnny, a Dallas barbershop employee, was sentenced to 90 months and ordered to forfeit $131,800 in cash, several bank accounts totaling $126,000, three firearms, and assorted luxury goods — shoes, purses, sunglasses, and a jacket — estimated to be worth approximately $64,215. Montanez was trafficking both methamphetamine and large amounts of cocaine. Steven Mark Moore, 27, of Oklahoma, received 60 months for a firearms trafficking scheme involving straw purchases of weapons later linked to crimes in the United States and deadly cartel shootings in Mexico.
Five defendants were convicted during the month. James William Quinney, Jr., 38, of Beaumont, pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges; Quinney led an organization that distributed kilograms of methamphetamine and was found purchasing 18 kilograms at a time for redistribution. Law enforcement seized nearly five kilograms of methamphetamine and over $80,000 in U.S. currency from Quinney. Latisha Mae Thebeau, 42, of Port Arthur, pleaded guilty to her role in the conspiracy. Both face up to life in federal prison at sentencing.
Micheal Corbin, 48, a Beaumont convicted felon, pleaded guilty to distributing more than 50 grams of methamphetamine and possessing a firearm, which as a convicted felon he is prohibited from owning. Darrell Charles Coleman, 37, of New Orleans, pleaded guilty to trafficking methamphetamine after being pulled over for speeding on Interstate-10 in Beaumont. Coleman’s passenger, Kory Jarvis Schaffer, 34, also of New Orleans, pleaded guilty to distributing fentanyl. All three face up to life in federal prison.
The HSTF Dallas operation draws on agents and officers from the FBI, ICE Homeland Security Investigations, the DEA, ATF, IRS Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Transportation Security Administration’s Federal Air Marshal Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, TEXOMA HIDTA, and the U.S. Marshals Service. Federal grand juries returned eight indictments during May charging the 25 defendants with crimes including drug trafficking and immigration violations; sentencing dates for the newly convicted defendants have not yet been set.