GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – On April 29, 2019, Pedro Cortez-Gomez, 36, of Greeneville, Tennessee, a citizen of Mexico, was sentenced by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, Senior U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 15 years in federal prison for his role in a methamphetamine distribution conspiracy.  Since Cortez-Gomez was residing in the United States illegally, he faces deportation after serving his sentence in federal prison.

Cortez-Gomez pleaded guilty in January 2019 to conspiring with his girlfriend Kayla Leanne Reaves, 25, of Afton, Tennessee; Casey Hannah Howren, 27, of Elizabethton, Tennessee; and others, to distributing between 1.5 and 4.5 kilograms of actual methamphetamine or “Ice.”

On April 22, 2019, Reaves was sentenced by Judge Greer to serve 41 months in federal prison for her role in the conspiracy.  Sentencing for Howren is set for July 8, 2019.         

Agencies involved in this investigation included Third Judicial District Drug Task Force, Greene County Sheriff’s Department, Greeneville Police Department, Elizabethton Police Department, Johnson City Police Department, Tennessee National Guard-Counterdrug Task Force, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Enforcement and Removal Operations, FBI and ATF. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christian Lampe and Robert Reeves represented the United States in court proceedings.                        

The investigation is a result of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s drug supply reduction strategy. OCDETF was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multi-level attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. Today, OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its member federal agencies in cooperation with state and local law enforcement. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s drug supply.

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