An illegal immigrant living in Fresno has been sentenced to prison for nearly two decades for drug trafficking.
U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced that Mexican national Gilberto Arteaga, 43, has been sentenced to 19 years and five months in prison for his role in a fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy.
Driving the news: From October 2022 to July 2023, Arteaga participated in an operation to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine in Fresno County.
On July 15, 2023, law enforcement agents followed a car to a Sanger residence that had traveled into Mexico and back in less than 12 hours. Officers stopped that car, which Arteaga was driving and another one, and found around 30 pounds of methamphetamine and more than six pounds of fentanyl.
Agents also searched Arteaga’s cellphone and found photographs of packages of methamphetamine, along with messages about unloading drugs out of the gas tank.
Evidence revealed that Arteaga and his co-defendants had been smuggling drugs for at least seven months.
Flashback: Arteaga pleaded guilty on May 19, 2025.