A drug distributor for a Mexican-based organization who was responsible for at least 100 pounds of methamphetamine seized in Oregon was sentenced Wednesday to more than 12 years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut told Javier Sarabia, 28, that his work was “killing people,” and adopted the prosecutor’s recommended sentence of 12 years and seven months.
“The amounts are staggering, and this was a sophisticated operation,” the judge said. “You’re ruining our community and ruining lives.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Maloney said Sarabia was a sub-distributor for the drug trafficking group that shipped bulk quantities of methamphetamine and heroin to the United States and up the West Coast to California, Oregon and Washington.
His arrest followed an investigation that began in 2019 by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with help from local law enforcement in Portland and Vancouver.
Sarabia loaded 100 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and more than eight pounds of heroin into hidden compartments beneath the front seats of a car that investigators stopped in Tigard in late April 2019, the prosecutor said.
He was stopped by police a month later in Chino, Calif., in a car carrying 10 pounds of methamphetamine, as well as heroin, Maloney said.
Federal agents and Portland investigators traveled to California and interviewed Sarabia. He confessed his involvement as a so-called “load coordinator,” for a drug trafficking organization that transports about 90 to 100 pounds of methamphetamine at a time concealed in cars traveling to California, Oregon and Washington, according to a government sentencing memo.
Sarabia’s defense lawyer Casey Kovacic argued that his client was more of a “middle-man” in the drug network. He didn’t organize or supervise others and was not a kingpin, the lawyer said. He urged a lesser sentence of eight years.
Sarabia told the judge at his sentencing that he regretted what he had done. After his arrest, his wife left him with his 2-year-old son, according to his lawyer. Sarabia was born in Phoenix but grew up in Mexico after his parents divorced at a young age, before returning to the United States at age 18. He worked odd jobs in roofing and siding before he got involved in drug distribution in late 2019, his lawyer said.
“I’d like to apologize to the court and the government of the United States. I made a bad decision,” Sarabia said.
“I lost most of everything for myself over nothing. I lost my family and my freedom.”
