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Four Indiana men are among 11 people who were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in a cartel-linked drug trafficking ring across the Midwest.
Authorities said the convictions are tied to defendants’ efforts to distribute nearly 400 pounds of methamphetamine and over seven kilograms of fentanyl between September 2021 and November 2022.
Erick Apolinar Romero, 35, supervised the organization of the drug trafficking, which included smuggling methamphetamine and fentanyl from a Mexican drug cartel to the United States through the U.S. Postal Service, vehicles, and trains, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.
Romero was arrested at his home in Indianapolis in December 2022. He will serve 19 years in federal prison with five years of supervised release.
Two other men were arrested in Indianapolis. They are 37-year-old Julian Islas-Lozada, who will also serve 19 years in prison, and 36-year-old Junior Castillo, who will serve 14 years in prison.
Another Indiana man, 46-year-old Zachary Polk of Vincennes, will serve over 15 years in prison.
Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration located 56 kilograms of methamphetamine at the Indianapolis home of Islas-Lozada and Castillo. DEA agents located over 10 kilograms of methamphetamine at Romero’s house, along with 13 firearms.
Law enforcement seized a total of 20 firearms from defendants during court-authorized home searches throughout Indianapolis.
“International cartels have flooded our communities with poisons, using planes, trains, automobiles, and even the U.S. Mail to smuggle fentanyl and meth into our communities right here in Indiana for local distribution,” said Zachary A. Myers, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. “Every link in this chain fuels the death and misery touching far too many of our families—and must be dismantled.”
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