Cocaine, meth trafficker found in Dallas with $1.5 million sentenced to 20 years
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — A drug trafficker who was found with a stash of over $1.5 million in his Dallas residence was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in federal prison, officials announced.
Hecton Manuel Castro-Quirino, 49, of Dallas, pleaded guilty back in Sept. 2022 to conspiracy to deliver controlled substances. He was sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn, who also ordered that he forfeit the $1,595,185 seized from his home.
Court documents state that in June 2021, an informant told law enforcement officials about a drug house on South Acres Dr. in Dallas. Agents and officers proceeded to make several undercover purchases at the home over the next few weeks.
Finally, on July 13, 2021, a SWAT team executed a search warrant on the house. Officers found Castro in his kitchen, but he fled to his attic before finally surrendering.
As officers searched the master bedroom, they found five gallon-sized bags full of methamphetamine (594 grams, about 1.3 pounds) and cocaine (1,447.8 grams, just under 3.2 pounds), ledgers full of customer and payment information, and 14 firearms - some of them loaded.
Large quantities of cash stuffed inside of tube socks, shoe boxes, a trash bag, and a banker box were also found. It took law enforcement agents several hours to count up how much money Castro-Quirino had.
In his plea agreement, Castro-Quirino admitted that he regularly sold meth and cocaine, noting that he received about a kilogram of cocaine every week and a kilogram of meth each month. He claimed his common law wife Vanesa Cervantes, 39, kept his books.
Cervantes pleaded guilty last Sept. to concealing a felony and was sentenced on Wednesday to 21 months in prison.