FRESNO, CALIF. — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - California, Eastern), published as received.
FRESNO, Calif. — Jesus Angulo, 36, of Woodlake, pleaded guilty today to possessing cocaine with intent to distribute it, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
According to court documents, a team of local, state, and federal law enforcement officers partnered in an investigation into a group of Tulare County Sureños. During the investigation, law enforcement discovered that Angulo and his co-defendant Jonathan Gallegos were traveling to Southern California and into Mexico to obtain illegal drugs, including kilograms of cocaine. On Oct. 26, 2021, law enforcement officers stopped Angulo and Gallegos as they were traveling northbound in Kern County in a pickup truck. Inside the truck they found over 9 kilograms of cocaine and a stolen, loaded firearm.
The case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Tulare County Area Regencies Gun Enforcement Team, the Visalia Police Department, the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation, the California Highway Patrol Special Operations Unit, and the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin J. Gilio and Antonio J. Pataca are prosecuting the case.
Angulo is set for sentencing on June 12, 2023, by U.S. District Judge Ana de Alba. Angulo faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and up to life in prison. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally based strategies to reduce violent crime. To learn more about Project Safe Neighborhoods, go to www.justice.gov/psn.
This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
