DES MOINES – An Iowa man responsible for driving tens of thousands of grams of methamphetamine from Mexico to Iowa has been sent to prison for 12 years with no chance of parole.
Jack Mazariegos-Galicia, age 20, from Des Moines, Iowa, received the prison sentence after a May 24, 2021 guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
Evidence at the plea and sentencing hearings showed that, beginning in 2017, law enforcement was investigating a large-scale methamphetamine organization operating out of Mexico. The head of the organization, Mario Hernandez, was in Mexico and worked with others, including Mazariegos-Galicia, to transport kilogram quantities of methamphetamine from Mexico to Iowa. In June 2020, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle occupied by Mazariegos-Galicia and an associate. The stop took place outside of Des Moines and the vehicle had travelled from Texas. Inside the vehicle, officers located nearly 5,000 grams of pure “ice” methamphetamine. Mazariegos-Galicia and his associated had picked up the methamphetamine in Texas and drove it back to Iowa for it to be distributed in Iowa. In total, Mazariegos-Galicia’s role in the group involved over 43,000 grams of methamphetamine.
Mazariegos-Galicia was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Mazariegos-Galicia was sentenced to 151 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Ashley Corkery and Emily Nydle. This case was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program of the United States Department of Justice through a cooperative effort of the Mid-Iowa Task Force (Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, Tama County Sheriff’s Office, Marshalltown Police Department), Iowa National Guard and Counter Drug Program, Tri-County Task Force (Cedar Falls Police Department, Waterloo Police Department, Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
