California heroin dealers who used code words like “taco” when making phone orders are jailed for 24 years
SANTA ANA, California — Two Southern California brothers who ran a heroin delivery operation — taking phone orders from customers using code words like “taco” — have been sentenced to 24 years in prison each, prosecutors announced.
Julio Cesar Martinez, 45, of Riverside, and Victor Martinez, 46, of Hemet, parts of California's sprawling Inland Empire, were sentenced Monday. Both pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to distribute heroin and acknowledged distributing at least 29 kilograms of the drug in Orange County, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office.
The ring operated from at least September 2003 to July 2021, selling heroin smuggled from Mexico into the U.S. by couriers who sometimes hid the drug in their body cavities, the U.S. attorney's office said.
Call centers without worker housing handled orders from buyers who used the names of Mexican foods to purchase medicine. A gram of heroin was a “taco” and an ounce (just over 28 grams) was an “enchilada,” authorities said.
Runners then delivered the order and took payment.
One client died in Orange County in 2016 from an overdose of heroin and other drugs, prosecutors said.
Other members of the ring placed the money in bank accounts in deposits of $10,000 or less to avoid federal reporting requirements, prosecutors said.
“These two brothers took the drug trade to the next level by operating a heroin delivery service that profited from the addiction and torment of others,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in the statement. “While they and their families lived lavishly, these defendants ignored the destruction they caused in our community. Today's ruling sends a clear message that we will not tolerate this type of misconduct.”
The brothers were among more than a dozen people targeted in what authorities called “Operation Horse Caller,” a five-year federal effort to dismantle the ring.
Prosecutors said 16 people have been convicted so far in the effort.