LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 17, 2025) — Federal prosecutors have charged Renato Benites Echegaray of Lexington with conspiring to distribute more than a pound of cocaine after agents seized drugs and cash from multiple homes linked to him, according to a newly filed criminal complaint.
A sworn affidavit from DEA Task Force Officer Zachary Travis says investigators had been tracking Echegaray since at least July 2024 as part of a long-running probe into large-scale cocaine trafficking in central Kentucky. Over months of surveillance, agents identified three Lexington properties tied to him — his main residence on Red Clover Lane, a second home on Pleasant Ridge Drive, and a stash house on Aspen Street.
The case centers on a January 29 encounter in the parking lot of Malone’s restaurant in the Hamburg area. Investigators watched Echegaray, driving a 2015 Chevrolet Suburban, meet with the driver of a white GMC pickup. Minutes later, Kentucky State Police pulled over the truck and a drug-sniffing dog alerted to narcotics. Troopers found 1,017 grams of cocaine — roughly one kilogram — hidden inside, the affidavit says…