A federal jury in El Paso convicted 45-year-old local resident Charles Arellano on three counts tied to fentanyl trafficking, following a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation. The case also involved a fentanyl transaction in January 2025. Arellano now faces a statutory range of five to 40 years in federal prison, with no sentencing date yet set.
The case, first announced in a post from U.S. Attorney WDTX
, stemmed from an undercover fentanyl transaction in which Arellano claimed to have long-standing involvement in drug dealing and asserted connections to multiple drug cartels, according to the
Department of Justice
. Those recorded statements became key trial evidence establishing his alleged history and intent.
After the investigation began closing in, Arellano fled to Mexico in early 2025. Mexican authorities apprehended him in June 2025 and returned him to the United States for federal prosecution, the agency's announcement notes, underscoring the cross-border cooperation that El Paso and Juarez law enforcement rely on to catch suspects who try to slip across the line.
Co-Defendant Already Sentenced to Nine Years
Arellano was indicted in July 2025 alongside co-defendant Yvonne Beltran-Leyva, who pleaded guilty that October and was sentenced in April to 108 months — nine years — in federal prison for her role in the conspiracy. Her resolution came months before Arellano's case went to trial, and it now stands as the clearest benchmark for the kind of prison term federal prosecutors have pursued in the broader case.
Because federal convictions carry no parole, Arellano would be required to serve at least 85% of whatever sentence a judge ultimately imposes, a standard rooted in the elimination of federal parole under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, as Hoodline has previously reported.
Part of a Larger Federal Push Along the Border
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathan Brown and Erin Van Pelt prosecuted the case for the Western District of Texas under U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons. The prosecution was carried out under Operation Take Back America, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in early 2025 to target drug cartels, transnational criminal organizations, and illegal border trafficking.
Three days before Arellano's conviction, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas and the DEA San Antonio Field Division announced a new Overdose Task Force.
State Law Adds Another Layer of Risk for Dealers
Texas has also sharpened its own legal tools against fentanyl distribution. Under Texas House Bill 6, which took effect in September 2023, state prosecutors can file murder charges against fentanyl dealers in cases tied to fatal overdoses — a statute Hoodline detailed in its coverage of a separate El Paso jail fentanyl death case last month, in which a local man was sentenced under the new murder law.
Arellano's case remains open on one key point: the court has not yet scheduled his sentencing hearing, meaning his final prison term — and any detail a judge might share about the drug quantities involved — is still unknown.
