On April 22, 2026, a federal court in San Diego, California, sentenced Eduardo Mendoza—alias “Casper”—to 15 years in prison for leading a fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking organization supplied by the Sinaloa Cartel. His brother, Francisco Javier Mendoza—alias “Pancho”—had received a 10-year sentence for the same crime on April 17 of that same year. Both men are natives of Niland, California, and operated within Imperial County, along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The investigation, conducted over several years through wiretaps, led to the identification of the Mendoza Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO). This group obtained narcotics from a source linked to the Sinaloa Cartel—based in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico—and subsequently distributed them throughout the Imperial Valley and in other states, reaching as far as New York. Eduardo Mendoza, 33, was the lead defendant in an indictment charging 12 individuals with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl.
In his plea agreement, Eduardo Mendoza admitted to participating in the conspiracy from at least 2020 until the date of his arrest in June 2024 in the state of Oregon. Meanwhile, Francisco Javier Mendoza, 35, was apprehended in the Imperial Valley, California, as part of a simultaneous, multi-district operation. During the investigation, agents seized shipments of fentanyl and methamphetamine attributed to the organization on multiple occasions: on April 12, 2021, they seized approximately 30,000 fentanyl pills—equivalent to 3.18 kilograms—in the Imperial Valley; on that same date, they confiscated drugs concealed inside Easter eggs in New York. On December 24, 2021, approximately 9.64 kilograms of methamphetamine were seized in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Imperial Valley. New York. Las Vegas. Oregon,” stated Adam Gordon, head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California (USAO-SDCA). “This was a wide-ranging investigation targeting prolific drug traffickers. But we wiretapped their phones, seized their drugs, and brought them to justice,” the prosecutor affirmed. For his part, Kevin Murphy, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San Diego, noted that the sentencing represents “a significant victory in our ongoing fight against transnational criminal organizations that threaten the safety of our communities.”
The case was investigated by some twenty federal, state, and local agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Border Patrol, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, among others. The prosecution was led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Shivanjali Sewak and Kevin Mokhtari, under case number 24-cr-0504-CAB.
The case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative, established pursuant to U.S. Government Executive Order 14159, which aims to dismantle cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations operating both within and outside U.S. territory, with a particular emphasis on crimes related to child trafficking and the removal of foreign nationals with a history of violence.
Source: Zeta Tijuana
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