United States Drug Enforcement Administration

(FORT WORTH, - Texas - Two defendants who pleaded guilty in August to felony offenses stemming from their respective roles in a methamphetamine distribution conspiracy were sentenced this morning, by U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor, to lengthy federal prison sentences, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Gabriel Farias-Lopez, 37, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison.  Co-defendant Kimberly Robles-Rueda, 20, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison.

According to documents filed in the case, Farias-Lopez received kilogram-quantities of methamphetamine from a source in Mexico that he subsequently distributed in the Dallas - Fort Worth, Texas, area.  Robles-Rueda collected the drug proceeds for the methamphetamine that Farias-Lopez distributed.  She also received instructions from a person in Mexico as to how to wire or otherwise return the drug proceeds to the person in Mexico.  The instructions she received usually involved depositing or wiring money into various bank accounts in $1,000-increments.  Then, Robles-Rueda or another person would wire or transfer the money to bank accounts in Mexico.

Pursuant to a traffic stop conducted by law enforcement in Fort Worth on June 23, 2015, Farias-Lopez and Robles-Rueda were found to be in possession of approximately four kilograms of methamphetamine ice, and Robles-Rueda had nearly $8,000 cash in her purse.  Then, during the subsequent execution of a search warrant at their shared home on Travis Avenue in Fort Worth, law enforcement found liquid methamphetamine and methamphetamine ice, with a combined weight of approximately three kilograms, and $25,000 in cash.

The Drug Enforcement Administration investigated.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith was in charge of the prosecution.