Lafayette – United States Attorney Zachary A. Keller, together with federal partners at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), announced five significant Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) drug trafficking cases charged by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana (USAO) that it charged between mid-February and mid-March and that involved the arrest of illegal aliens and local gang members who were trafficking fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine in the District.
The five cases build upon HSTF’s cases in the Vernon Parish and Natchitoches areas that the USAO prosecuted recently occured in the Shreveport, Lafayette, Alexandria, Breaux Bridge and Lake Charles areas.
In the Breaux Bridge area, the matter United States v. Ranulfo Garcia Rodriguez and Christian Antonio Sanchez Ramirez, No. 26cr-00070, involved two Mexican nationals towing several ice cream freezers concealing several fabricated metal boxes, which were welded to the back wall of the insulated freezer compartment. Inside of the metal boxes, agents located approximately 147 kilograms of methamphetamine. If convicted, the defendants face sentences that range from 10 years to life in federal prison. The matter is being investigated by the DEA and Louisiana State Police and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Vermaelen with assistance from Legal Assistant Christy Angelle…