A 42-year-old man living in Girdwood will spend 11 years in jail for his role in distributing methamphetamine across Southcentral and Southeast Alaska, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Jorge Cardenas, also known as George Castineda, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess and distribute methamphetamine in July 2017, online court records show. Cardenas is a Mexican national living in Girdwood, the U.S. attorney for the district of Alaska said in a release Friday.
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Federal prosecutors say Cardenas trafficked meth and other drugs throughout Southcentral and Southeast Alaska for five years before his arrest in March 2017.
Cardenas was arrested after selling several ounces of methamphetamine to an informant on two separate occasions out of his Girdwood home last year, court records say.
An initial tip about Cardenas came into the Juneau Police Department in November 2013. Police were told Cardenas was traveling to Juneau with meth.
Cardenas was stopped at the airport along with his girlfriend, and after a search of his vehicle, police found nearly 10 ounces of suspected methamphetamine in a bag under the front seat. Cardenas was cited for driving with a suspended license, but no federal drug charges were filed at the time, according to court records.
In January 2014, Cardenas' girlfriend told law enforcement that meth was shipped to him through the mail, and that he had just gotten 4 ounces of the drug in a package. He had access to bank accounts allowing him to transfer money from Alaska to "associates in California," court documents say. Cardenas had disposed of cameras, laptops and telephones after his encounter with police at the Juneau airport, she said.
Three years later, in January 2017, Cardenas sold 3 ounces of methamphetamine to an informant at Cardenas' Girdwood home for $2,700. In March, Cardenas reached out to the informant to see if the person wanted to buy meth. Cardenas later sold the informant 4 ounces of meth, and also "fronted" the informant roughly 5 ounces of the drug.
A search of Cardenas' house uncovered another 11 ounces of methamphetamine in his backyard. Prosecutors say Cardenas also planned to mix fentanyl and heroin, known as "gunpowder heroin," and he "spoke candidly about the likelihood of it causing overdose deaths," prosecutors said.
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Cardenas was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison Thursday.