Eleven individuals connected with a Cleveland-based drug trafficking organization have been sentenced after pleading guilty to a plethora of federal crime violations, including RICO conspiracy, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio. Such sentencings trace back to charges laid out in a superseding indictment on Feb. 22, 2024, an extension of an operation initially spotlighted in an indictment from Sept. 20, 2023.
Federal prosecutors laid out a narrative in which the defendants, over a period starting May 2021 through Nov. 29, 2022, combined to form an organization led by Jerry Baker, also known as Jerry Bogarty, 34, from Cleveland. Operating out of the city's east side, members were engaged in drug trafficking, extortion, robbery, and other illegal activities with the goal of financial gain. Engaging in a wide array of roles, some associates were even implicated in using violence to collect debts, as per court documents.
The elaborate scheme involved moving over 600 pounds of marijuana from California to Ohio, with Walter Sornoza, 50, of Los Angeles, at the helm of a distribution network dubbed “Empire Genetics.” Drugs were transferred to Cleveland via suitcases checked as baggage on flights and subsequently distributed there. Baker took the enterprise a step further, investing in a business, “In & Out Tires,” doubling as a drug distribution center, where authorities seized firearms and other paraphernalia.
The court was presided over by U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Gaughan, who handed down sentences that ranged from probation to significant prison time following guilty pleas. Among the defendants, Baker received one of the heaviest sentences, at 168 months, for a string of charges, detailed in the same U.S Justice Department release, which include conspiracy to launder money and drug distribution, as well as firearm-related charges. Others received varying degrees of punishment in line with their involvement, marked by incarceration, location monitoring, and years of supervised release post-imprisonment.
This case falls under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Strike Force Initiative, designed to disrupt major criminal operations through collaborative, intelligence-driven efforts by agencies like the FBI, DEA, ATF, and local police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret A. Sweeney for the Northern District of Ohio, alongside Trial Attorney Brian Lynch of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section, prosecuted the case.
