Mexican National Who Ran Stash House and Laundered Money for Group Linked to Sinaloa Cartel Sentenced to over 5 Years in Prison

         LOS ANGELES – A Mexican National who was charged in the first major narcotics trafficking indictment resulting from an investigation by the Los Angeles Strike Force was sentenced today to 63 months in federal prison for his role in an international narcotics network that transported 21 pounds of pure methamphetamine across the United States-Mexico border on behalf of a drug trafficking organization linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.

         Edgar Limon, 39, was sentenced by United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer, who also ordered Limon to pay a $17,500 fine.

         Limon pleaded guilty on July 17, 2019, to participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy and money laundering. Limon was one of 22 defendants named in a 19-count grand jury indictment that was unsealed in 2017.

         The indictment outlines a scheme to import hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin from Mexico into the United States. The narcotics were distributed throughout the country via a network of cartel associates, and the proceeds from the domestic narcotics sales were then funneled back to Mexico, according to the indictment. The drug trafficking organization stored drugs in “stash houses” in the San Gabriel Valley, one of which Limon managed.

         During the two-year wiretap investigation, members of the Strike Force seized narcotics with an approximate street value in Los Angeles of more than $6 million. The seizures included approximately 290 pounds of methamphetamine, 280 pounds of cocaine, 30 pounds of heroin, and 81 pounds of marijuana.

         Limon is one of nine defendants who were taken into custody pursuant to the 2017 federal grand jury indictment, and he is the last of those to be sentenced. The other eight received prison terms of up to 135 months. Several defendants charged in the indictment remain fugitives and are believed to be in Mexico.

         Between June 2014 and April 2016, there was an agreement between Limon and his codefendants to distribute, and to possess with the intent to distribute, methamphetamine in the Los Angeles area. In one instance, Limon transferred more than 3 kilograms of methamphetamine in El Monte, California. Limon also maintained a stash house in Azusa that served as a distribution point for methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine.

         In relation to the money laundering offense, Limon and his codefendants conducted financial transactions in the Los Angeles area and elsewhere with the intent to conceal and disguise the nature of the drug trafficking proceeds. Limon received cash that he knew to be drug proceeds, and he conducted financial transactions designed to conceal the money’s illegal origins.

         Limon is the brother of Jeuri Limon Elenes, the lead defendant in the indictment who is currently a fugitive and believed to be in Mexico. Limon’s mother and cousin were also charged in the indictment, and both were sentenced to 87 months in federal prison.

         The Los Angeles Strike Force investigation was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in partnership with the Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Marshals Service and the Azusa Police Department.

         The Los Angeles Strike Force was formed in 2014 to target Mexican drug cartels that use the Los Angeles metropolitan region as a primary hub for the distribution of narcotics across the United States. The goals of the Strike Force are to target high-level narcotics traffickers, disrupt and dismantle the cartels’ narcotics trafficking and related money laundering activities, and arrest and prosecute the cartels’ leaders and operatives.

         This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney A. Carley Palmer of the Criminal Appeals Section.