Alleged California kingpin arrested for Oklahoma meth conspiracy

TULSA, OK -- An alleged drug kingpin charged with directing a continuing criminal enterprise and organizing and directing at least three separate methamphetamine conspiracies in Oklahoma and Missouri was arrested last week in Bakersfield, California.

“Today, a 13-count federal indictment was unsealed charging Luis Alfredo Jacobo with leading a continuing criminal enterprise that brought an estimated 2,000 pounds of methamphetamine into the Northern District of Oklahoma and southwestern Missouri for redistribution,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.

Jacobo was arrested by federal agents last week. Also arrested were Kelly Wayne Bryan and Curtis Anthony Jones in Missouri, who were charged as part of one of Jacobo’s alleged drug conspiracies. The indictment also charged Jesus Valdez Martinez and Antonio Cervantes Garcia as Jacobo’s coconspirators. Martinez is in federal custody for a related case in Montana. Garcia is in federal custody for a related case in the Western District of Oklahoma.

Jacobo, using his Mexican sources of supply and Bakersfield as a base of operations, is alleged to have directed and organized a methamphetamine enterprise that consisted of at least three distribution conspiracies with three separate groups of individuals in Northeast Oklahoma and Southwest Missouri.

Jacobo allegedly set prices, determined methods of delivery and payment, and approved any suggestions made about the groups’ operations.

According to the indictment, bulk distributors brought the methamphetamine to Bakersfield from Mexico. From there, Jacobo directed that the methamphetamine be sent via U.S. mail to the groups in Oklahoma and Missouri or driven there in vehicles, sometimes in quantities of 50 to 100 pounds at a time. Coconspirators would drive large amounts of cash back to California or would mail cash payments back to Jacobo and to others at Jacobo’s direction. The coconspirators sometimes mailed as much as $100,000 cash at a time from Oklahoma to California as part of the enterprise.

The indictment resulted from an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation “Operation Pullin Chains.” The case is also related to a 231-pound methamphetamine seizure in October 2020 in Grove, made by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. The drugs were found inside a Grove storage unit along with more than $465,000 in cash.