News Release [print friendly page]
For Immediate Release:
April 30, 2009
Contact: Special Agent Tony Pettigrew
Number: 617-557-2138

APR 30 -- BOSTON, MA - A Chino, California, man was sentenced late yesterday in federal court for trafficking approximately 30 pounds of methamphetamine to Boston and laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug money using a sophisticated system of cash deposits, wire transfers, and bogus checks.

Steven Derr, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England, Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks, Colonel Mark Delaney, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, and Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Division announced that JOSE DeJESUS RUVALCABA, age 34, of Chino, California, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole to life imprisonment, the mandatory penalty. RUVALCABA was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and money laundering on May 5, 2008.

Evidence presented during trial proved that from 2004 through 2006, RUVALCABA led a large and complex methamphetamine distribution and money laundering conspiracy. RUVALCABA served as the source of supply for his co-conspirators and distributed dozens of pounds of methamphetamine to them in Boston, New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. In return, RUVALCABA’s co-conspirators paid RUVALCABA hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in person, by overnight courier, and through cash deposits and money transfers into a Bank of America account belonging to RUVALCABA.

In August, 2004, RUVALCABA opened a Bank of America account in the name of Dynamic MultiMedia. During the conspiracy, members of the drug ring paid RUVLACABA over $400,000 for methamphetamine by depositing drug proceeds into the Dynamic MultiMedia account. One member of the conspiracy deposited approximately $290,000 in cash as payment for methamphetamine from RUVALCABA.

RUVALCABA typically charged from $12,500 to $20,000 per pound for methamphetamine, and the $400,000 in drug proceeds he received corresponded to 20 to 32 pounds of methamphetamine.

RUVALCABA was arrested on March 16, 2006. Upon arrest, RUVALCABA admitted sending methamphetamine to Boston. The cell phones that RUVALCABA had at the time of his arrest, and which he acknowledged were his own, contained text messages to and from other members the conspiracy and a recorded memo/reminder from RUVALCABA to himself. The voice memo was a UPS tracking number. The text messages with the co-conspirator included the same tracking number, as well as communication back and forth in which the co-conspirator asked RUVALCABA to send the package to an apartment in Jersey City, New Jersey. FBI agents found the corresponding package in the New Jersey apartment, and the package contained a stereo inside which were hidden several hundred grams of methamphetamine. The package had been mailed from a Staples store in Chino, California, located roughly two miles from RUVALCABA’s residence.

The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Massachusetts State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.