Claudio Garcia-Morales, 35, of Columbus Garcia-Morales was booked into the Bartholomew County Jail on April 28 and transferred to an undisclosed federal agency the same day. Garcia-Morales faces a federal charge of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison and a $10 million fine. Submitted Photo
INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge will consider guilty pleas from two former Columbus residents who authorities say had ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and were part of an alleged conspiracy to transport drugs from the U.S.-Mexico border and distribute them in Bartholomew County.
U.S. District Judge James R. Sweeney II has scheduled hearings on Nov. 29 and Nov. 30 in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis to decide whether to accept guilty pleas from Claudio Garcia-Morales and Erlin Lucero-Asencio, according to court filings. Sentencing dates have not yet been set.
Federal authorities allege that the two men and more than a dozen other individuals were part of a drug trafficking network that used a number of couriers and mailing companies to transport methamphetamine and other substances from the U.S.-Mexico border to Indianapolis.
From there, the drugs would be handed off to other individuals to distribute in other areas of central and southern Indiana, including Bartholomew and Jackson counties, according to court filings.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials told The Republic last year that the members of the drug trafficking ring were “some of the biggest suppliers” of drugs in Bartholomew and Jackson counties — including methamphetamine and fentanyl — and had ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, which experts say controls a wholesale distribution network in the U.S. and elsewhere to get drugs into the hands of local street deals.
In August, Garcia-Morales, a former Columbus resident who at one point lived on Maple Street, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, including 500 grams or more of methamphetamine.
At around the same time, Lucero-Asencio, who was listed as an Indianapolis resident at the time of his arrest, filed a petition to plead guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, including 500 grams or more of methamphetamine.
Lucero-Asencio previously resided in Columbus and has a criminal history in Bartholomew County, according to local court records.
He was arrested in Columbus in 2013 after allegedly selling $5,300 in methamphetamine to a confidential informant on two occasions in the parking lot of the Kroger Marketplace on North National Road, according to a probable cause affidavit.
He also was arrested in Columbus in 2015 for possession of a cocaine after allegedly offering the drug to an individual in the bathroom of the El Corral Night Club on State Street.
The federal charges stem from an investigation launched by the DEA in 2021, court records state. Over the course of the investigation, federal agents received authorization to intercept and monitor communications on nine cell phones, including three phones belonging to a Bartholomew County resident.
DEA agents said the suspects would routinely communicate and discuss obtaining and distributing methamphetamine over the intercepted phones.
Additionally, federal authorities said several of the individuals involved in the drug trafficking network attempted to disguise financial transactions to conceal that the money came from distributing controlled substances.
Evidence included in court filings document $29,900 in wire transfers to Mexico, including a wire transfer made directly from Columbus to a municipality in Sinaloa Mexico. Sinaloa is a state along the Pacific Ocean in northwestern Mexico.
The investigation led to the arrest of 18 people last year following raids in Columbus, Seymour, Terre Haute, Indianapolis and Detroit. It also led to the seizure of about 82 pounds of methamphetamine, 1,750 fentanyl pills, 35 grams of fentanyl, 1 kilogram of cocaine, 4 pounds of marijuana, “a large quantity” of suspected THC gummies, $9,000 in cash and nine guns.
Another Columbus resident, Abel Ayala-Garcia, and Seymour residents Victor Vazquez-Hernandez and Allison Perdue also were among those who were arrested.
Vazquez-Hernandez pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.
Ayala-Garcia has been charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
Perdue has been charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances.
A plea of not guilty was entered on behalf of Ayala-Garcia and Perdue last year. A trial date has been set for March 25.
But as the trial date approaches, the individual who federal authorities say was the Indianapolis leader of the drug trafficking organization, Isaias Gonzalez-Torres, pleaded guilty on Aug. 17 to conspiracy to possess and distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
Gonzalez-Torres was sentenced to just over 24 years in federal prison last week. However, he has filed notice to appeal the judgement in his case, though it is not yet clear what the basis for the appeal is. Records in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit state that the appellant’s brief is due by Nov. 13.
Court filings allege that Gonzalez-Torres partnered with Lucero-Asencio to distribute large quantities of methamphetamine across central and southern Indiana.
According to federal court records, Lucero-Asencio worked with Mexico-based Edeer Avila and others to obtain controlled substances, including methamphetamine, to distribute in central and southern Indiana.
Avila was arrested about a decade earlier on murder charges in the death of a woman in Indianapolis whose eyeballs had been removed. Avila later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on the basis of being mentally ill. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail but was released early.
Avila’s last known address was in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, located just across the border from El Paso, Texas, according to the DEA.
The announcement of the arrests took place in May 2022, just over a year after federal, state and local law enforcement said they had dismantled a drug trafficking network in the Columbus area with ties to an undisclosed Mexican drug cartel, leading to about 60 arrests — including at least 36 federal indictments and 23 local prosecutions — and 25 federal convictions.
Named “Operation Columbus Day,” the investigation is believed to be the largest multi-agency drug investigation in Bartholomew County history.
It is unclear whether the people arrested in May 2022 had any connection to Operation Columbus Day.
