DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Five people are in jail, accused of stashing 1,000 pounds of meth for a notorious drug cartel from Mexico known as Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación.
Federal agents said the suspects hid the drugs in two different homes. Agents seized 700 pounds of meth from an apartment at a complex called Indigo on Northwest Expressway.
And 300 pounds were found inside a home on Hairston Crossing Trail in Stone Mountain, according to agents.
Four children were also living in the homes where the drugs were stored.
“Wow. See, I just thought they were a normal family,” one Stone Mountain neighbor told Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco.
She asked Channel 2 not to share her name in fear of retaliation, but she said she never would have suspected the family was possibly connected to a drug cartel.
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“They looked like a normal family. They had children, you know. I seen a wife, friends come over,” she said.
The same situation played out in the Indigo apartment complex, according to investigators. That’s where they seized 700 pounds of meth in a home where two children were living.
“Talk about true innocence. They got brought here,” said Robert Murphy.
He’s the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta Division.
“It’s done on purpose. They send the family on purpose. The cartels aren’t stupid. They want them to blend in so you see them as your neighbors, you see the kids playing out front. They’re not calling attention to themselves,” said Murphy.
After three days’ worth of undercover work, investigators showed up at the two stash houses, seized all the meth, arrested four men and a woman, and took four children from the homes.
Wilber Castellanos Villazana, 38, Yamilet Calixto Sotelo 22, Jorge Lorenzo Manzanarez, 35, Esteban Jacobo-Suarez, 44, and Damien Gomez-Guijarro, 32, who are all citizens of Mexico, face charges of possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine in federal criminal complaints.
Castallanos Villazana, Calixto Sotelo, Lorenzo Manzanarez, and Jacobo-Suarez are from Mexico and did not have proper paperwork to enter the U.S. Jacobo-Suarez was previously deported from the United States twice. Gomez-Guijarro was authorized to be in the U.S.
These cases are being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Atlanta-Carolinas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program, with valuable assistance provided by Homeland Security Investigations, the DeKalb County Police Department, and the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office.
Assistant United States Attorney Michael Herskowitz is prosecuting the cases.
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