Six Cincinnati-area men have been sentenced in a “large-scale” methamphetamine trafficking operation that was connected to a Mexican cartel and involved hundreds of pounds of the drug being shipped from the West Coast, court documents say.
The six men were indicted in 2023 on federal drug charges along with a seventh defendant, a Compton, California, man who was described as a supplier.
Prosecutors say the drug trafficking took place from at least mid-2018 until March 2023 when the indictments were handed down.
Two of the men, Franklin Eugene Johnson, of Newport, and Gerald Jeter Jr., of Mount Healthy, organized the methamphetamine shipments, according to prosecutors.
Johnson, 40, and Jeter, 39, traveled to the West Coast to obtain meth, prosecutors said, which they would then ship back to the Cincinnati-area.
Prosecutors say Johnson and Jeter were “high-level distributors” and would break down large loads of meth for resale to mid-level distributors, including 39-year-old Anthony Clardy II of Springfield Township and 38-year-old Robert Day of Elsmere, Kentucky.
Prosecutors called Jeter a prolific trafficker, and in a sentencing memorandum described Johnson as a career criminal whose “principal employment was large-scale methamphetamine trafficking.”
Also convicted in the case were Dre’Quan Christopher, of North College Hill, and 25-year-old Tyrone Justin Jordan. Christopher, 26, was described as a street-level dealer who sold meth throughout the Cincinnati area. Jordan was a lower-level participant.
All seven were sentenced this year in federal court in Cincinnati. Three were sentenced this month. Johnson is serving a 13-year sentence. Jeter was sentenced to 11 years. Clardy and Christopher each received sentences of about eight years. The Compton supplier, 32-year-old Juan-Jose Carillo, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in prison. Day is serving six years. Jordan was sentenced to three years.
Investigators connected the methamphetamine to the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, which has been described as a billion-dollar organization that has its own army and controls extensive drug routes throughout the United States.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Feds: Mexican cartel supplied meth for trafficking in Cincinnati area