Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Meth ring leader gets 20 years
U.S. Attorney: Sentence dismantles ‘significant’ network
ROGERS — A California man who coordinated the shipment and sale of methamphetamine in Northwest Arkansas and elsewhere from prison was sentenced to 20 more years in federal prison this week, U.S. officials announced Thursday.
Larry Jesus Navarete, 35, will serve the term on top of a 38-year sentence from a 2008 conviction in California for gang-related robbery and false imprisonment, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The sentence dismantles a “significant drug-trafficking ring” tied to a multinational street gang with roots in Central America, Kenneth Elser, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, said at a news conference at the
Rogers Police Department. Local and national agencies collaborated on the investigation since it started in 2015, he said.
“I assure you that is not the final nail that’s going to be put in this case,” said Matthew Barden, special agent in charge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, adding drug-trafficking groups “know no boundaries.”
Navarete joins more than a dozen others convicted and sentenced in Northwest Arkansas and Oklahoma in connection with the drug ring, according to his plea agreement in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.
The investigation began in earnest when a confidential informant bought 7 grams of meth from a distributor in early 2015. Following the chain of suppliers led investigators to more than 25 pounds of the drug in Arkansas, enough for thousands of hits.
The substance, an addictive stimulant that can bring hours of an all-consuming high, all came from the same California source, according to the plea agreement. Investigators found Navarate was leading the ring with a contraband phone in prison and with the help of his wife, who has since been sentenced to six years in prison.
By working with federal and California authorities, investigators also concluded Navarete leads a faction of Mara Salvatrucha, an international street gang also known as MS-13. The gang is predominantly El Salvadorean but has had thousands of members in the U.S. for about 30 years, according to the Justice Department.
The members of Navarete’s ring included citizens of the U.S., Honduras and Mexico. Not all were necessarily part of MS-13 but at least did business with the group, Barden said.
References to MS-13 have appeared sporadically in Northwest Arkansas in recent years.
A handwritten message in a Rogers gas station restroom in 2014 threatened that a police officer would soon be killed and was signed “MS13.” No officer was killed. Last year, a shooting victim in Springdale told police the shooter claimed to be part of MS-13, according to an affidavit. A 15-year-old male was arrested in connection to the shooting.
Other Latin American gangs have been implicated in a handful of other local shootings and at least two murders since 2015.
Dozens of MS-13 members have been caught up in recent investigations around the country, including immigration sweeps that have gone on for years but drew new attention under President Donald Trump and a string of killings in New York. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and law enforcement leaders in other countries pledged in April to target the group together.
Navarete’s activities also fit within the growing dominance of imported methamphetamine over homegrown varieties in Arkansas.
Meth labs found in the state have plummeted from several hundred a decade ago to about 40 in 2014, according to the drug administration’s count, following stricter policies on the sale of the decongestant pseudoephedrine. Meanwhile, the administration’s seizures of meth from highway stops soared from a few pounds a year to about 1,000 pounds annually in the past two or three years.
“It’s a problem throughout the state,” Elser said of the drug Thursday.
Investigators found Navarate was leading the ring with a contraband phone in prison and with the help of his wife, who has since been sentenced to six years in prison.