A federal jury in Chicago has convicted a 24-year-old California man on two drug trafficking charges tied to a Los Angeles-based meth operation that used the U.S. Postal Service to move multi-pound quantities of methamphetamine across the country. Hugo Steven De La Cruz Corona traveled from California to Chicago in October 2020 to retrieve two parcels of meth, only to find that federal agents had already intercepted the packages and swapped the drugs for fakes before he arrived.
The jury returned its verdict on September 25, following a four-day trial in the U.S. District Court in Chicago, according to FOX 32 Chicago. Prosecutors said De La Cruz Corona worked for the trafficking organization that shipped the narcotics nationwide using the mail, and that law enforcement intercepted both parcels before he could collect them, replacing the methamphetamine with fake drugs as part of the operation.
De La Cruz Corona is a resident of San Jacinto, California, while the man prosecutors have identified as the organization’s alleged leader, 49-year-old Marco Torres Sr. of Hesperia, California, pleaded guilty before De La Cruz Corona’s trial even began, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. Torres is now awaiting sentencing and faces an upcoming court status hearing on October 13.
Four Co-Defendants Already Convicted
De La Cruz Corona was not the only person charged in connection with the organization. Four other defendants were convicted for their connections to the same drug trafficking organization, and three of them have already been sentenced to prison terms of six years, five years, and 14 months, respectively, the office’s announcement notes…