Mexican National Pleads Guilty To Federal Narcotics Conspiracy
Friday, March 7, 2025, 7:15 A.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
CHARLESTON, W.VA.- On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, Silvester Barcenas, 23, a Mexican National in the United States illegally, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia and pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn to Conspiracy to Distribute 500 Grams or More of Methamphetamine.
Following entering his guilty plea, Judge Aboulhosn accepted the plea and scheduled sentencing for June 30, 2025. At that time, Barcenas faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison, at least three years of supervised release, and a $1 million fine. When sentenced, a U.S. District Judge will determine the term of imprisonment based on the seriousness of the offense and Barcenas’s prior criminal history.
According To The U.S. Attorney’s Office
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa G. Johnston and charging information filed with the District Court, on August 12, 2024, Barcenas arrived in Charleston, West Virginia, with a little under four kilograms of methamphetamine in a vehicle he had driven from South Carolina, where he had been residing illegally.
During his plea allocution on Tuesday, Barcenas admitted that he possessed the methamphetamine and that a co-conspirator directed him to deliver the methamphetamine to another individual in Charleston, West Virginia, and that he delivered the methamphetamine to the individual as instructed.
According to the charging information, Barcenas and two other Mexican nationals were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury following a joint investigation by federal and local law enforcement agencies into a narcotics conspiracy that was responsible for delivering large quantities of Methamphetamine from Houston, Texas, into West Virginia and surrounding areas.
The indictment against co-defendants German Francisco Diaz, also known as “Trulio,” 40, and Braulio Villa-Chairez, also known as “Raul,” 31, remains pending.
The indictment alleges the three Mexican nationals in the United States illegally conspired to distribute large quantities of methamphetamine in the Charleston, West Virginia, area from around March 2024 to around October 2024. The trial for the two men has been scheduled to begin on April 15, 2025.
Israel Chaires-Villa, 22, a Mexican national and additional co-conspirator, pleaded guilty on February 13, 2025, to possession with intent to distribute a quantity of methamphetamine and has been scheduled to be sentenced on June 2, 2025.
Acting U.S. Attorney Johnston commended the investigative work of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Team.
