United States Drug Enforcement Administration

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Raul Jimenez-Verduzco was sentenced today to 84 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine, announced United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Acting Special Agent in Charge Bob P. Beris.  The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge Beth L. Freeman.  

Jimenez-Verduzco, 24, a resident of San Jose and Milpitas, pleaded guilty on November 1, 2022.  In his plea agreement, he admitted that from October 2020 to October 2021 he worked with a drug trafficking organization to distribute large amounts of controlled substances.  In total, he conspired to distribute 198 pounds of methamphetamine, 10 pounds of heroin, and 40 pounds of cocaine.  According to the government’s sentencing memorandum, the values of these drugs approximated $495,000 of methamphetamine, $63,000 of heroin, and $540,000 of cocaine.

Jimenez-Verduzco acted principally as a dispatcher who took phone orders from the drug trafficking organization’s customers and contacted couriers to deliver the drugs to the customers.  He described that he engaged in hundreds of calls each week with customers ordering drugs and with couriers who he directed to deliver the drugs.

Jimenez-Verduzco admitted in his plea agreement that he also performed other tasks for the drug trafficking organization.  For example, he kept drug shipments in his apartment until a co-conspirator could take the drugs to a larger stash house.  He picked up money from customers and delivered it to another co-conspirator in charge of money handling.  He also delivered drugs to customers.  For these tasks, he was paid a weekly salary. 

In his plea agreement, Jimenez-Verduzco described multiple drug deliveries that he made.  On October 20, 2020, he met with a customer who was, unbeknownst to Jimenez-Verduzco, an undercover law enforcement agent.  He delivered three ounces of pure methamphetamine and one ounce of heroin to the undercover agent.  On August 18, 2021, Jimenez-Verduzco delivered drugs to a man parked in front of a parking complex on Harvard Avenue in Santa Clara.  Jimenez-Verduzco put a trash bag containing 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of methamphetamine into the man’s car.  Law enforcement officers stopped the car minutes later and seized the drugs.  Lab testing determined the methamphetamine was 96% pure.  

On October 21, 2021, Jimenez-Verduzco was arrested when a Santa Clara deputy sheriff conducted a traffic stop on the car he was driving in alone.  Jimenez-Verduzco had $4,000 in cash with him and, inside a backpack on the front passenger’s seat, a pound of methamphetamine.  Officers also found a cardboard box in the car’s trunk containing 19 pounds of methamphetamine along with heroin.  Jimenez-Verduzco admitted in his plea agreement that he intended to distribute these drugs.

In addition to 84 months imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Freeman ordered three years of supervision of Jimenez-Verduzco following his release from prison.  Jimenez-Verduzco was in custody at the sentencing hearing and begins serving his sentence immediately. 

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Tartakovsky, Lina Peng, and Ross E. Weingarten prosecuted the case with the assistance of Laurie Worthen.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by DEA, the Santa Clara Police Department, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, and the San Jose Police Department.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.