Date: December 17, 2020 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Indianapolis, IN - Cristian Gutierrez-Alvarez, Michoacan, Mexico was sentenced to 295 months in federal prison today following his guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and possession of a firearm during and in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense. In late February 2018, federal agents initiated an investigation into a drug trafficking organization led by Cristian Gutierrez-Alvarez. This organization distributed controlled substances in the Indianapolis and Medford, Oregon areas. This poly drug organization was distributing multi-pound quantities of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana from sources of supply in Mexico, California and Oregon. On January 18, 2019, 15 federal search warrants from this investigation were executed. As a result, 25 federal arrests and multiple state arrests throughout Indiana and Oregon were made as well as the seizure of approximately nine pounds of methamphetamine, over a kilogram of heroin, fifteen ounces of cocaine, approximately forty pounds of marijuana, twenty firearms, approximately $20,000, and 15 vehicles. This case was the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Indianapolis Metropolitan Drug Task Force, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley A. Blackington, who prosecuted the case for the government, Gutierrez-Alvarez will be deported to Mexico following the completion of his prison sentence. This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
