OMAHA – United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Gilbert Navarro, age 42 years and from Omaha, Nebraska, and Juan Delgado, age 40 years and from Council Bluffs, Iowa, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering charges today. Navarro and Delgado were charged together in a superseding indictment, along with five other co-defendants. The Honorable Joseph F. Bataillon, Senior United States District Court Judge, presided over the change of plea hearings.
Navarro pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to distribute 50 kilograms or more of marijuana, and also to conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charge of conspiring to distribute 50 kilograms or more of marijuana is punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000, and at least three years of supervised release following any term of imprisonment. Navarro’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 7, 2015.
Juan Delgado pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of actual or pure methamphetamine, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charge of conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of actual methamphetamine is punishable by at least 10 years’ imprisonment, possibly up to life imprisonment, a fine of up to $10,000,000, and not less than five years of supervised release following any term of imprisonment. Delgado’s sentencing hearing is also scheduled for August 7, 2015.
The charge of conspiring to commit money laundering is punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to $500,000 and three years of supervised release following any term of imprisonment.
In addition to selling marijuana for a codefendant in this case, Navarro also purchased a 2014 Ram 1500 pickup truck in the name of his company, “D.N. Inc.” A co-defendant, whose primary source of income was drug trafficking, wished to purchase a vehicle. Because the co-defendant would not be able to obtain financing for the vehicle given his illegal occupation, the co-defendant and Navarro reached an agreement or understanding that Navarro would purchase the vehicle for the co-defendant and finance the vehicle. The co-defendant agreed to make payments to Navarro for the pickup truck, and the truck was then used exclusively by the co-defendant.
Delgado assisted a co-defendant in selling methamphetamine. Delgado also collected payment for the methamphetamine sales for the co-defendant. At times, Delgado would deposit the proceeds from those methamphetamine sales into various Wells Fargo bank accounts in Nebraska. Delgado would receive the account numbers and names on the accounts from a co-defendant in this case. Most of the time, the names on the accounts were not of people directly involved in the sale of the drugs. The purpose of those transactions was to funnel money to the suppliers of the drugs, and to do so in a manner which concealed the nature, source, ownership, or control of that money.
