All Eight Members of a Virginia Cocaine and Firearms Trafficking Ring Sentenced: Final Defendant Gets Two Years and Six Months After Agents Bought 47 Guns in Controlled Purchases
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced that Juan Francisco Enriquez Cerritos Sr., 54, a Salvadoran national, has been sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison for conspiracy to deal in firearms without a license. He is the last of eight defendants to be sentenced in this Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) case, in which sentences ran as high as 12 years and seven months. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema imposed the sentences in case No. 1:26-cr-35.
According to court documents, from July 2024 to January 2026, Enriquez Cerritos; Jorge Steve Zepeda Irias, 43, an illegal alien from Honduras; and Jenifer Icela Romero Fabian, 25, a lawful permanent resident from El Salvador, sold dozens of firearms from a Haymarket ranch leased by Enriquez Cerritos and managed by Zepeda, and from the Chantilly residence Zepeda shared with Romero Fabian. None of the conspirators was licensed to sell firearms. Zepeda and Romero Fabian, together with Oscar Raquel Cuellar Macua, 49, an illegal alien from El Salvador, and Evelyn Esmeralda Villatoro, 32, of Silver Spring, Maryland, also traveled to locations including Washington to obtain cocaine from co-conspirators Jorge Manuel Romero, 36, of Beltsville, Maryland; Oscar Vladimir Padilla Portillo, 32, of Bowie, Maryland; and Damon Darnell Gray, 36, of Washington.
Law enforcement made controlled purchases of 47 firearms and multiple kilograms of cocaine from the conspirators. During a May 12, 2025 controlled purchase of firearms and cocaine at the Chantilly residence, Zepeda fired a firearm into the ground and pointed a second firearm at another individual. On January 21, 2026, agents made further controlled purchases of more than a dozen firearms and four kilograms of cocaine, then simultaneously executed search warrants at multiple locations across Washington and northern Virginia.
The eight sentences were: Romero, 12 years and seven months; Zepeda, 10 years and 10 months; Gray, 10 years; Padilla Portillo, seven years and six months; Cuellar Macua, five years and 10 months; Romero Fabian, three years and four months; Enriquez Cerritos, two years and six months; and Villatoro, two years. Enriquez Cerritos pleaded guilty on July 21 to conspiracy to deal in firearms without a license and was sentenced on October 27. The case was announced by Theophani K. Stamos, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Jeffrey L. Tyler, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Criminal Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Patterson and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Bolzman prosecuted the case, and the Prince William County Police Department assisted in the investigation.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Alexandria 的 Albert V. Bryan 美国法院大楼全景（弗吉尼亚东区联邦地区法院所在地），本案八名被告在此区判刑。照片：Antony-22 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse in Alexandria, seat of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, where the eight defendants were sentenced. Photo: Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
