A 55-year-old Mexican national and resident of Houston has been sentenced to a 210-month prison term following her conviction for conspiracy to import and intent to distribute methamphetamine. In a swift deliberation on Feb. 8, 2023, after a two-day trial, a federal jury found Ana Maria Pena-Gutierrez guilty, as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to the proof presented at her trial, Pena-Gutierrez played a central role in smuggling nearly 60 kilograms of meth into the U.S. between December 2020 and June 2022. Providing vehicles and paying drivers for their involvement, U.S. District Judge Diana Saldaña ordered her prison term to be followed by five years of supervised release. Her activities jeopardized the stability of communities, as U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani emphasized, stating to the U.S. Department of Justice, "Pena-Gutierrez and others like her who poison our communities with drugs and jeopardize the lives of countless persons of all ages deserve to be found and prosecuted without hesitation."
Evidence during the trial revealed Pena-Gutierrez managed logistics and finances of the operation. Testimony given by co-conspirator Mike Mendoza indicated that Pena-Gutierrez had hired him for multiple drug smuggling trips from Mexico to the United States, with payments ranging from $5,000 to an intended $9,000 on the day of his arrest which occurred while driving a pickup truck loaded with drugs camouflaged within the tires. According to saying authorities, the drug' approximate street value was $451,244 at the time of Mendoza's arrest.
Demonstrated through text messages and financial records evidence, Pena-Gutierrez executed the conspiracy with meticulous communication and planning, with over 350 calls and text exchanges with Mendoza specifically about drug prices and logistics. Authorities detailed her confession during the trial, revealing payments she received for successful deliveries and the compensation promised to drivers like Mendoza and another co-conspirator, Erik Alonso Martinez, who was arrested in April 2021 with a substantial quantity of meth in a car provided by Pena-Gutierrez.
Martinez and Mendoza were sentenced to 174 days and 84 months in federal prison, respectively. Pena-Gutierrez is currently awaiting transfer to a federal prison facility by U.S. authorities. The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations with assistance from Customs and Border Protection, and it was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose Homero Ramirez, with previous assistance from former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Isaac and José Angel Moreno.
