Federal Court in Louisiana Sentences Member of Large Drug Trafficking Organization to 10 Years in Federal Prison

Louisiana – On September 7, 2022, United States Attorney Ronald C. Gathe, Jr. announced in a federal court in Louisiana that Aron Winter Mosquera-Castro, age 28, of Houston, Texas was sentenced to 120 months (10 years) in federal prison following his convictions for conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute heroin, unlawful travel in aid of a racketeering enterprise, and unlawful use of a communications facility. The Court further sentenced him to serve five years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment.

A jury found Mosquera-Castro guilty of the above charges on June 23, 2021, following a three-day trial, for his role in a narcotics distribution operation getting heroin from Houston and operating in East Baton Rouge and Ascension parishes. Mosquera-Castro functioned as an interpreter for the heroin’s source, negotiated rates with the people who received it, and then transported it from Houston, Texas to Ascension Parish for further distribution. Mosquera-Castro is the drug trafficking organization’s eighteenth and last member to be convicted in this case.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Louisiana State Police, the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office, the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, Gonzales Police Department, and the Baton Rouge Police Department all investigated this operation. Assistant United States Attorneys Robert Piedrahita, Jennifer Kleinpeter, and William Morris prosecuted this case.

This prosecution is part of an investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). OCDETF uses a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that pose a threat to the United States.