A Stockton man has been dealt a decade behind bars for his role in peddling heroin and fentanyl. Convicted of conspiracy to distribute the potent substances, 39-year-old Jose Cruz Ivan Aispuro received his sentence Tuesday, as divulged by the U.S. Attorney's Office. He was not only sentenced to prison time but is also required to cough up $42,066 — proceeds believed to be from his illicit dealings.
The case, which unfolded between November 2018 and December 2019, involved Aispuro and co-defendant Frank Guzman. They planned to widely distribute over a kilogram of heroin and a hefty stash of counterfeit pharmaceutical pills laced with fentanyl, according to court documents obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office. As part of the conspiracy, Aispuro provided heroin that Guzman was caught selling to an undercover agent, as well as 500 faux oxycodone pills containing the deadly fentanyl.
Authorities seized around 4.5 kilograms of heroin and the cash from Aispuro's property. Guzman's place turned out to contain roughly 10,000 counterfeit pills and 2.8 kilograms of heroin. U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez handed down the identical ten-year sentence to Guzman on Dec. 12, 2023.
The bust was made possible through a joint effort spearheaded by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service and the San Joaquin Metropolitan Drug Task Force. The investigation itself fell under the umbrella of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) — a group established to identify, and to effectively dismantle, high-level criminal organizations that threaten the nation with an intelligence-driven, multi-agency method.
