FARGO - The man who supplied massive quantities of methamphetamines and other narcotics to the upper Great Plains will spend 18½ years in prison for his crimes, a federal judge ordered Tuesday.
Prosecutors said Victor Espinoza fed the supply line of a large-scale drug-trafficking and money-laundering conspiracy investigators call "Operation Budapest."
According to the U.S. Attorney's office in North Dakota:
The drug-trafficking organization transported more than 50 pounds of methamphetamines and other amounts of marijuana and cocaine from California to communities in North Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska.
These illegal narcotics were distributed locally in Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck and on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in north-central North Dakota.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Myers has charged 44 individuals so far in connection with "Operation Budapest."
Not including Espinoza, 26 defendants have already been sentenced for crimes such as drug conspiracy, firearms charges and money laundering.
Eleven of those defendants were Fargo residents and nine were Grand Forks or East Grand Forks residents, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
