PHOENIX: A Willcox woman has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for her role in a drug smuggling organization that imported drugs from Mexico to Willcox to Phoenix for distribution to the midwest and locales on the east coast.
Alma Escalante, 41, appeared Sept. 28 before U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow in Phoenix who imposed the 46-month prison term, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release. Snow had previously handed down a 10-year prison term on Luis Cruz, Escalante’s husband, who federal authorities describe as the leader of the smuggling organization.
Cosme Lopez, of the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office, said Cruz facilitated the movement of drug loads to Willcox from Mexico via a network of scouts and backpackers for transportation to large-scale movers in Phoenix like Carlos Antonio Garcia-Hurtado, who would then arrange for distribution to the midwest and points east.
The multi-agency investigation yielded 4,000 pounds of marijuana, real estate, firearms and numerous bank accounts tied to Cruz and Garcia-Hurtado both of whom have pleaded guilty to money laundering counts in addition to the drug smuggling offenses.
Garcia-Hurtado received a 14-year prison term and Cruz’s stepchildren, Felipe Escalante-Reyes, 24, and Carime Itsel Reyes-Escalante, 20, received sentences of 42 and 40 months.
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