2 sentenced for operating a Bay Area fentanyl ring
Brothers get 4 years in prison, then face likely deportation
Two brothers with multiple aliases each were sentenced earlier this month to four years in federal prison for operating a fentanyl ring that supplied street-level dealers, court records show.
Roger Arteaga, who goes by Jorge Miguel Casco-Raudales, Alfredo Zuniga and Rorro, allegedly organized supply, collected money and handled organization of the drug ring. His brother, Luis Castro-Valle — who is also known as Luis Ochoa, Luis Valle and Panda — served as a courier and worked directly with lower-level drug dealers, prosecutors say.
Ultimately, both brothers pleaded guilty to the same charge of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer gave them the same sentence, four years in federal prison, followed by three years' supervised release. But prosecutors expect both men to be deported to Honduras after serving their sentences.
In court papers, attorneys for both men described their tumultuous upbringing as being marred by extreme poverty, violence and illness that claimed the lives of their two sisters. When Castro-Valle came to California, he tried and failed to find work as a day laborer, his attorney said.
“Enticed by the promise of reliable pay, he began selling drugs, mostly in the Tenderloin, and, eventually, mostly fentanyl given the skyrocketing demand for it,” his attorney, Matthew Dirkes, wrote in a sentencing memo.
But the brothers “found themselves falling deeper into the drug business” over time, Arteaga's attorney wrote in a sentencing memo, adding that, “his addiction played a major role in this drug trafficking offense, as he sold drugs to support his habit.”
The brothers were indicted in 2021. Prosecutors said in court records that from 2013 to 2021,
Arteaga racked up seven drug arrests, and CastroValle racked up 10 from 2015 to 2021. On top of that, Arteaga continued selling drugs in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood even after a judge issued a stay-away against him, authorities said.
“Undeterred, Arteaga engaged in increasingly sophisticated drug trafficking, moving up from street-level dealing in the Tenderloin to the procurement of large quantities of fentanyl, which he and (his brother) would dye different colors as part of a marketing scheme,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maya Karwande wrote in a sentencing memo.