A Mexican national was given a two-year federal prison term for dealing large amounts of fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine as part of a drug cartel cell that used a South St. Paul residence as a stash house.

Court documents say an investigation began in September 2022 into a local operation that sold drugs on behalf of Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, which U.S. prosecutors say “is arguably the most prolific and most violent cartel in Mexico today.”

As part of the investigation, Mario Alberto Velarde-Carrera sold the three drugs to undercover agents between late 2022 and February 2023, according to court documents.

A Dakota County Drug Task Force agent that had been watching Velarde-Carrera “caught (Velarde-Carrera) in the act of trying to move much of the substances from one of their stash locations” on Feb. 15, 2023, federal prosecutors say.

When Velarde-Carrera left the home in the 200 block of 11th Avenue North, he was pulled over by an officer who “had probable cause to arrest based on prior drug-related criminal activity involving large amounts of controlled substances in Dakota County,” according to a March 2023 criminal complaint filed in state court.

A K-9 dog detected drugs in Velarde-Carrera’s car, which was then searched. In a bag, authorities found more than 3½ pounds of fentanyl powder, 5 pounds of meth and a pound of heroin, the charges say.

Nearly 4 additional pounds of meth were seized after a search warrant was executed at the house.

In an interview with authorities, Velarde-Carrera admitted to selling drugs and that he was “working with ‘someone’ in Mexico,” federal documents say.

Velarde-Carrera, 29, was a part of the first cell of the distribution side of the local operation that was dismantled in February 2023, according to federal prosecutors.

Supporting the cartel

Velarde-Carrera was initially charged in Dakota County District Court with three counts of aggravated controlled substance in the first-degree. The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office picked up the case in May 2023, charging him with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin. He pleaded guilty to the charge the following October.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Slaughter Jr. wrote in a presentencing memorandum that Velarde-Carrera traveled from Mexico to “distribute drugs and make money” in Minnesota, where he relocated in November 2022. He previously had relocated to California from Mexico, where his parents, four siblings and wife still live.

The controlled buys by undercover agents “were only snapshots into this conspiracy — just select days of an ongoing process in support of the CJNG cartel,” Slaughter wrote in the memo. “They are however emblematic of (Velarde-Carrera’s) involvement (albeit brief) in these activities.”

Velarde-Carrera’s sentence, handed down Monday by U.S. District Judge Michael Davis in Minneapolis, includes five years of supervised release following incarceration. Velarde-Carrera was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Earlier this month, a U.S.-Mexican dual national and co-founder of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion was sentenced in the District of Columbia to life in prison for his role in a major drug trafficking conspiracy.

According to court documents, Ruben Oseguera-Gonzalez, known as El Menchito, 34, led the cartel for nearly seven years in Mexico and oversaw the importation of “multi-tonnage quantities” of drugs into the U.S. A judge also ordered him forfeit more than $6 billion of drug trafficking proceeds.

“Gonzalez was one of the first contributors to the fentanyl epidemic in the United States, pledging to ‘do it big’ and build an empire from counterfeit oxycontin pills laced with fentanyl,” prosecutors said in a March 7 statement.