Heroin probe by city police leads to incarcerations on The Murfreesboro Post

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Heroin probe by city police leads to incarcerations

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By: Lisa Marchesoni

Posted: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 2:16 pm

Dismantling the nation’s largest heroin operation that started in Murfreesboro resulted in another defendant sentenced to federal prison.

U.S. District Judge William Haynes Jr. sentenced Martin Najera of Nashville to serve three and one-half years in prison, reported Edward M. Yarbrough, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. After completing his sentence, Najera will be on supervised release three years.

Haynes also ordered the forfeiture of $111,256.27 to the U.S. that was seized from Najera. Najera, who admitted that he was in the United States illegally, agreed to not contest the deportation process to be initiated once his prison term is completed.

He pleaded guilty on June 22 to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. During his plea hearing, Najera admitted that from April 1, 2005 until August 16,
2006, a group of individuals conspired to smuggle heroin from Mexico and distribute it in
Nashville and the surrounding area.

Murfreesboro Police Lt. Nathan McDaniel said the investigation started in 2004 when Vice Detective Merrill Beene developed a confidential informant in a heroin investigation that led to the largest heroin seizure in the U.S. nicknamed "Operation Black Gold Rush."

Beene and Vice Detectives Hubert Jones, Shawn Jensen, McDaniel and Sgt. Charlie Goodloe participated in the investigation that spread beyond Murfreesboro and Rutherford County to Nashville, Illinois and South Carolina. Police alerted the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration who adopted the investigation.

"This case produced hundreds of arrests across the United States and resulted in seizures totaling several hundred thousand dollars," McDaniel said. "One hundred search warrants were served at the same time across the United States on this case."

At the time, DEA reported the leaders of the trans-border crime syndicate were based out of Nayarit, Mexico and were responsible for heroin smuggling and money laundering operations that extended from the interior of Mexico to neighborhoods throughout the United States. Operation Black Gold Rush was comprised of DEA-led investigations in 23 separate U.S. cities, resulting in the arrest of 137 individuals and the seizure of over 46 pounds of heroin. More than half of those arrests occurred in the Southeast within DEA’s Atlanta Field Division.

"Heroin is a miserable and highly addictive drug. It seduces the user into a false sense of well-being and then secretly destroys their life,” Atlanta Field Division (AFD) Special Agent in Charge Sherri Strange said. "We will not wait until a heroin & Fentanyl crisis hits our area. The information we are receiving is that heroin use is rising and showing up in our High Schools. Methamphetamine has received a lot of press coverage lately and justly so, but the DEA remains committed to combating all illegal drugs, especially heroin.

This organization purposely established distribution cells throughout the states of Tennessee, North and South Carolina to develop a strong base of operations and increase the user population.

Yarbrough’s press release stated Najera admitted that he discussed with members of the drug conspiracy how to wire the drug proceeds back to Mexico to avoid federal currency reporting requirements. Najera wired more than $160,000 in heroin trafficking proceeds for the organization in July and August 2006. These wire transfers were made in small increments and used fictitious names.

The Nashville leader of this drug trafficking organization, Javier Sanchez, was sentenced in March to serve 33 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin, possession of a
firearm by a felon, and money laundering. Sanchez was arrested in August of 2006 following an extensive multi-state investigation.

At the time of the arrest, Sanchez, who had previously been convicted of drug distribution, was found in possession of a firearm.

Sanchez used couriers to transport the heroin hidden in secret compartments of vehicles. Once in Nashville, the heroin was cut, packaged, and stored prior to distribution to customers in Middle Tennessee.

People purchasing heroin would call a dispatcher who would send a runner to deliver the heroin. The heroin was placed in balloons, which the runners held inside their mouths during transportation to avoid detection by law enforcement agents.

Sanchez wired money obtained from the sale of heroin from Nashville to Mexico using Najera’s business, Botas Bronco #2, located on Harding Place in Nashville.

The investigation was a joint operation conducted by the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Internal Revenue
Service-Criminal Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Murfreesboro Police Department, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office and the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Hal McDonough represented the U.S.

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Tags: DEA, Murfreesboro vice detectives, Operation Black Gold Rush

Member Opinions:

By: bota on 9/29/09
Good job RCSD!

By: Momma on 9/29/09
Yeah!! 2 down, 15 million to go!

By: Newport1 on 9/29/09
Nathan you truly are one of the good ones! Thank you to you and your team.

By: TheHandymanDave on 9/30/09
Users are losers! great job RCSD and all the rest! This shows that when people work together they can accomplish anything.

By: LOL on 9/30/09
The officers named above are all from the MPD not the RCSD.

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