Kingpin: DOJ says Arizona father and son ran large-scale drug trafficking ring

phoenix – The two leaders of a large-scale drug trafficking ring are a Phoenix-based father and son, the Justice Department said.

In addition to narcotics, conspiracy and money laundering, prosecutors are charging the two men with the “Kingpin” statute, also known as the Continuous Criminal Enterprise Act.

In January 2024, a federal grand jury in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, indicted 35 people in a second indictment, accusing the group of participating in a “violent international drug and money laundering operation” between August 2021 and June 2023.

26 of the 35 defendants are from the Phoenix area. A wiretap investigation by the FBI led to the discovery of the alleged drug ring.

Marcos Monarrez-Mendoza, 55, was convicted and sentenced to prison in 2013 for using the mail to set up a methamphetamine distribution system in Texas. A decade later, prosecutors believe he and his son, Marcos Monarrez Jr. (aka “Nene”), are leaders of the Phoenix-based Monarrez Drug Trafficking Organization.

The father and son are accused of importing millions of fentanyl pills, kilograms of fentanyl powder, hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine and dozens of kilograms of cocaine from Mexico and selling them throughout the United States.

Court documents say Monarrez DTO worked with four major suppliers from Mexico and Phoenix. Four men, including Jaime Ledesma, are also charged in this case.

Ledesma is serving time in an Arizona state prison for prior convictions for possession of narcotics for sale and weapons misuse.

Investigators say Monarrez DTO paid multiple distributors and couriers to transport and deliver shipments of fentanyl, meth and cocaine to redistributors in Phoenix, Seattle, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Wichita, Kansas, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Western Pennsylvania.

FOX 10 identified through court records some of the defendants accused of working for Monarrez-Mendoza to distribute illegal drugs; among them were Cesar Monarrez – aka “Pollo”, Colby Barrow – aka “Bando”, Donald Garwood and Valeriz Sanchez. Phoenix area.

Carlos Zamora — a.k.a. “Calancho” — is not only accused of redistributing fentanyl and methamphetamine, but law enforcement is calling him the “enforcer” of the operation and calling him Monarrez Jr. He says he was paid to commit acts of violence, including a drive-by shooting.

Where does our state stand among drug trafficking nationwide?

“We’re at ground zero of drug trafficking here,” says Special Agent in Charge Cheri Oz of the DEA’s Phoenix Field Division.

Oz and his team have been on the front lines of the fentanyl crisis in Arizona since 2020, seizing historic amounts of the drug.

“Synthetics are the wave of the future,” he says. “The cartels have learned the chemistry with methamphetamine and fentanyl, and they make mixtures in forests and basements and kitchens. They package them and sell them, bring them to the United States and sell them here.”

He says the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, known as “CJNG,” are the largest Mexican criminal organizations threatening the United States, but it’s not immigrants who bring illegal drugs on foot.

Couriers, or “mules,” travel through legal ports of entry at the southern border to bring drugs into Arizona.

Authorities also seized drugs at airports such as Phoenix Sky Harbor and discovered items stashed in checked luggage and containers. Oz says work is moving fast by land and air, and agents are trying to keep up.

“The cartels are finding very innovative and creative ways to hide cargo and bring it into this country. We’ve seen them inside teddy bears when they go in the mail. Anything you can imagine, like drug trafficking, illegal drug trafficking is $3. It’s a trillion dollar business. So that’s a lot of money, There are many reasons to try to bring poison into this country, so they will do whatever they can to get their poison into the United States,” Oz said.

The black market on the southern border is where drug and firearms smuggling collide.

“In Mexico you can only buy guns through the military. There are only two stores in the whole of Mexico and you have to have a permit to buy guns. So it’s a very controlled gun regulation or gun regulation.” says Rafael Barcelo Durazo.

Barcelo is the Mexican Consul in Tucson. He says both sides of the border are feeling the negative effects.

In the U.S. government’s lawsuit against Monarrez DTO, the alleged supplier, Humberto Arredondo-Soto, was paid for military-grade firearms, including AK-47s and short-stock Draco rifles, Glock pistols and FN SCAR assault rifles, that were smuggled into Mexico It was done. by couriers from the USA

“75 to 80 percent of the guns seized during a crime committed in Mexico were guns purchased from the United States and were illegally traded into Mexico,” Barcelo said.

Court records reveal the size of search warrants executed in connection with the Monarrez Drug Trafficking Organization.

In 2023, authorities searched nine Phoenix locations, seizing 27 pounds of fentanyl pills, seven and a half pounds of fentanyl powder, nearly 50 pounds of meth, 12 firearms and more than $200,000 in cash.

At the same time, 27 kilograms of fentanyl pills, 14 firearms and nearly $400,000 were seized through five search warrants in Seattle.

This seizure occurred in 2022 after investigators learned that a passenger on a commercial flight from Phoenix to Minneapolis had been in contact with Monarrez DTO members.

Just weeks later, in another smuggling attempt from Phoenix to Minneapolis, authorities seized two protein tubs of fentanyl pills weighing 20 kilograms, also linked to the Monarrez organization.

“Organized crime has taken a lot of lives in Mexico, and I think from the public’s perspective in the United States, the priority is just drugs. But you can’t fight drug trafficking if you don’t fight it. “Illegal arms smuggling from the United States,” Barcelo says.

He doesn’t stay behind bars

The Justice Department says Monarrez Jr. used smuggled cellphones while in prison in the Western District of Pennsylvania to communicate with other co-conspirators on the outside and orchestrate the distribution of 500,000 fentanyl pills across the country.

Marcos Sr. was arrested by Chandler Police in November 2023 on drug and money laundering charges.

Five of the 35 defendants took plea deals and four were sentenced.

Oz says Arizona is ground zero for drug trafficking in Arizona, affecting many families across the state.

‘We watched him die’

“I miss him so much every day. I miss his laughter. He was so sarcastic. He was always laughing, always joking. And he was so much fun. He brightened everyone’s life,” says his mother, Danya Ayers. Hannah Pairrett.

Ayers jumps at the opportunity to tell her daughter’s story now that she’s no longer here.

In June 2019, she warned her 16-year-old daughter about the dangers of buying drugs off the street.

“He actually said, ‘I’ll never be stupid enough,’ those were his words. ‘I’m not stupid enough not to go out and buy something. I’m not going to do that because I know better,'” Danya said.

However, Hannah eventually purchased what she believed to be three Adderall pills. An hour later, Hannah overdosed and was taken to Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Danya remembers seeing her daughter in intensive care.

“And if he makes it through, it would be a miracle and he wouldn’t be the same person because his brain would have been severely damaged from how long he was down there,” Danya said.

The pill Hannah took had fentanyl in it. His death was one of 1,294 fatal opioid overdoses in Arizona in 2019.

“We watched him die,” says Danya.

For Danya, the effects of a drug deal changed the lives of her family.

In November 2023, Michael Allen Fox was sentenced to six years in prison for the distribution of fentanyl that caused the death of Hannah Pairrett.

Fox has no affiliation with Monarrez DTO.

“There was some closure because he was sentenced and is now in prison. But the sentence was only six years. So we don’t think that’s the justice he deserves,” says Danya.

Meanwhile, the DEA says fentanyl seizures are starting to decline in Arizona.

“We have a ton of fentanyl coming into the United States. But I’m happy to say our numbers are leveling off and even down a little bit,” Oz says.

Danya makes it her mission to educate parents about fentanyl fears and look out for the signs before it’s too late.

“Seeing your child die or hearing about his death. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants that,” he says. “That’s what I really want to try, is that you never forget. It never disappears. And it never takes away the pain of losing your child like that.”

As for the Kingpin Statute, the penalty for conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Only a handful of Americans were charged with this law.