A Kennesaw woman previously deported from the U.S. on drug charges has been sentenced for trying to transport 14 kilograms of pure methamphetamine to metro Atlanta.
Yadira Gomez-Gonzalez, 34, was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison on a drug trafficking charge, according to court records.
That roughly 30 pounds of pure meth could have been cut with other substances to increase profitability for dealers.
Two others were sentenced in the case, which began March 2018: Her husband, 35-year-old Fernando Herrera-Rojas, got eight years prison, and a 32-year-old California man, Reynaldo Gonzalez-Arreola, got a sentence of 14 years.
The federal court-appointed attorney of the mother of three filed paperwork on May 15 asking the judge to consider circumstances in the woman’s life and not give her the 17½-year sentence prosecutors were seeking.
After four years in prison on a 2008 meth trafficking charge, Gomez-Gonzalez lost “her battle to remain in the United States, the only home she has ever known” and was deported to Mexico, her attorney wrote.
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With no family there and unable to speak Spanish, she crossed the border back to the U.S. and got a job working at a realty company in Houston. There she re-connected with a family friend: Herrera-Rojas.
She started working for him, traveling the country together doing construction and then visiting national parks and beaches. But luck ran out and debt came — as did a CS, short for confidential source.
“While all of this was going on, the CS started working on Herrera-Rojas to do a drug deal to solve his financial problems,” the attorney wrote. Her husband wanted Gomez-Gonzalez involved because, allegedly, her family members could provide the drugs.
The plan was to get a tractor-trailer driver to haul drugs between Los Angeles and Atlanta. Eventually, she relented and made numerous phone calls, including with an undercover federal agent.
The confidential source on March 14, 2018, told the Atlanta Drug Enforcement Administration office about the shipment, according to court records.
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A DEA agent posing as a long-haul trucker negotiated the terms of the transportation and payment with Gomez-Gonzalez and Herrera-Rojas, prosecutors said.
Gomez-Gonzalez was arrested at their Kennesaw home off Cobb Parkway North on March 26, 2018, and Herrera-Rojas was arrested that same day.
Prosecutors added that Gomez-Gonzalez’s arrest stopped a separate drug shipment she was trying to coordinate from McAllen, Texas to the Atlanta area.
It isn’t clear how much product the trio moved.
“This drug trafficking ring affected countless people with the methamphetamine they were sending across the country,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “Thankfully our law enforcement partners penetrated this tight-knit group and have removed this poison from our streets.”
All three will be deported to Mexico after finishing their prison sentences, prosecutors said.
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