United States Drug Enforcement Administration

(WESTON, Fla.) - On February 1, 2018, Gustavo Falcon, of Miami, member of the Falcon-Magluta organization, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846, an offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Prior to his arrest in April 2017, Falcon was a fugitive for 26 years.

Falcon’s conviction arises out of his participation in the cocaine trafficking organization headed by his older brother, Augusto Guillermo Falcon, a/k/a “Willie,” and Salvador Magluta. From the early 1980s through mid-October 1991, the Falcon-Magluta organization was an extraordinarily prolific cocaine trafficking organization based in the Southern District of Florida and elsewhere. As an illustration of the scope of the organization’s activities, cocaine ledgers seized from a residence controlled by Magluta that covered the period of January 1, 1990, through October 15, 1991, recorded the distribution of 8,921 kilograms of cocaine for a total price of $142,509,800. In the mid-1980s, the Falcon-Magluta organization established a base in Southern California. From that base, the organization distributed cocaine in the Southern California area and moved large tractor-trailer loads of cocaine from California to various destinations in the United States, including the Southern District of Florida. On almost a daily basis, the organization’s local distribution operations in Southern California received between $50,000 and $200,000 in cash drug proceeds.

Falcon’s wife’s brother was a Falcon-Magluta organization cocaine trafficker. In 1986, the defendant’s brother-in-law told the defendant that he had a client in California that he needed to supply with cocaine. The defendant gave his brother-in-law the names of two organization members working in the Los Angeles area and told his brother-in-law that one of them would be able to supply any cocaine he needed.

After his arrest in Los Angeles in mid-December 1986, the defendant’s brother-in-law returned to South Florida. In late 1987, Falcon asked his brother-in-law to receive large shipments of cocaine transported from California and introduced him to the organization member responsible for delivering the cocaine to a farm in west Miami-Dade County. The tractor-trailers arrived every one to two months and generally contained 1,000 kilograms of cocaine per load. After the loads were delivered to the farm, the defendant’s brother-in-law then would transport the cocaine to stash houses in the South Florida area.

In late 1989, Falcon contacted a separate organization member and offered him $10,000 per month to stash large quantities of cocaine in his house. After this organization member accepted the defendant’s offer, he received and stored organization cocaine through 1991. A search of that organization member’s house in early January 1992 yielded 3,093 kilograms of cocaine from his attic.

On April 10, 1991, a federal grand jury returned a cocaine trafficking indictment in this case that charged ten Falcon-Magluta organization members including Falcon, Willie Falcon, Salvador Magluta, and the defendant’s brother-in-law. After the indictment was unsealed on May 20, 1991, Falcon and others learned of the charges against them. In mid-September 1991, Falcon obtained a false Florida driver’s license in the name of “Luis Andre Reiss” and shortly thereafter became a fugitive.

In April 2017, the United States Marshals Service located the defendant in the area of Kissimmee, Florida, where he had been living under the “Luis Reiss” alias identity he had established in September 1991. Deputy Marshals captured the defendant on April 12, 2017.

Sentencing for Falcon is scheduled for April 11, 2018, at 10:00 A.M., before United States District Judge Federico A. Moreno.

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration Miami Division and the United States Marshals Service. It is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.