By Sarah Elmquist Squires
The Ranger
Via- Wyoming New Exchange

RIVERTON — Two Mexican nationals who the Federal Bureau of Investigation said have probable ties to a known transnational drug trafficking organization were sentenced last week in federal court after a drug trafficking sting on the Wind River Reservation yielded several pounds of methamphetamine and firearms.

Oscar Espinoza Duarte, 32, of Chihuahua, Mexico, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for methamphetamine distribution, aiding and abetting that offense, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and being an illegal immigrant in possession of a firearm.

German Ortiz-Esparza, 35, of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, will spend a decade in prison for methamphetamine distribution, aiding and abetting that crime, and being an illegal immigrant in possession of a firearm.

The pair were arrested in February as part of an investigation involving state and federal law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and one that led to a two-month manhunt for another defendant in the alleged drug trafficking ring.

 

Duarte and Esparza

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming, federal and state law enforcement agencies were tipped off that the pair were driving frequently to Denver to pick up large quantities of methamphetamine and then distribute them on the reservation.

On February 25, both men were arrested at Duarte’s trailer on the Wind River Reservation. Esparza had eight grams of cocaine and a 9mm pistol on his person at the time of the arrest, while Duarte had a .45-caliber pistol, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A release from that agency says in Duarte’s residence, agents found a pound of methamphetamine; three more firearms, including a pistol with the serial number scratched off, and more than $5,000 in cash.

The two pleaded guilty this spring and were sentenced last week.

 

The manhunt

As part of the investigation, agents were watching Duarte’s residence on February 6 when Collie Judson Warren, 49, of Ethete, allegedly drove up in a white pickup and went inside.

After remaining inside for 21 minutes, Warren reportedly left armed with a red package, which he put in the bed of his pickup before driving off.

Agents tailed the pickup to the convenience store in Ethete, where Warren reportedly abandoned the truck and got into the passenger side door of a second vehicle, which drove away.

While some agents stayed with the white truck, later discovering the red package was a Budweiser case that reportedly contained two pounds of methamphetamine, other agents followed the second vehicle, then pulled it over for having expired registration.

But Warren somehow got away.

It’s unclear whether agents failed to arrest Warren then, or he otherwise escaped. It’s also unclear what became of the white truck with two pounds of meth in a Budweiser case in the truck bed. The FBI, in two separate statements about the case while Warren was still on the run, said he may be driving a white 1993 Ford pickup.

The FBI made an unusual move: it asked for the public’s help in locating Warren, then offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. He was on the run for two months before being arrested in April on charges of distributing methamphetamine. 

His case is still pending.