Fayetteville, Arkansas - Duane (DAK) Kees, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced that Larry Navarrete, age 38, a citizen of Nicaragua, was sentenced yesterday to 284 months in federal prison followed by six years of supervised release on one count of Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine. The Honorable Timothy L. Brooks presided over the sentencing hearing in the United States District Court in Fayetteville.

According to court records, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) first became aware of Navarrete in 2015, as a result of his role as a leader of a drug trafficking organization responsible for distributing large quantities of methamphetamine in the Western District of Arkansas.  The 2015 investigation revealed that Navarrete obtained and used numerous contraband cell phones while incarcerated in Calipatria, a state prison facility in California, to direct the shipment of methamphetamine to the Western District of Arkansas for distribution as well as to coordinate the payment of proceeds owed to him for the shipped methamphetamine.  At the time, Navarrete was serving sentences in Calipatria due to a state conviction.  Navarrete was first indicted and prosecuted in the Western District of Arkansas in case 5:15CR50060-001, and was ultimately sentenced in May 2017 to serve 240 months in the Bureau of Prisons on one count of Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine.  Upon returning to Calipatria to serve the remainder of his state sentences, Navarrete again obtained and used contraband cell phones to direct the shipment of methamphetamine to the Western District of Arkansas.  It was in the fall of 2017, that Agents with the DEA Fayetteville Resident Office learned from confidential sources that Navarrete contacted them by cell phone from within the Calipatria state prison facility requesting their assistance in the distribution of methamphetamine in the Western District of Arkansas.

Based on the information received from the sources, in October 2017, Agents initiated a new investigation into Navarrete’s conduct. Agents arranged and conducted a controlled purchase of methamphetamine coordinated by Navarrete who was assisted by his co-conspirators located in the Western District of Arkansas and elsewhere.  The methamphetamine recovered as part of the operation on October 11, 2017, was sent to the DEA South Central Laboratory for testing.  The Laboratory determined that the substance contained approximately 103.84 grams of actual methamphetamine. 

Navarrete was indicted at the close of the 2017 investigation by a federal grand jury in January 2018, and entered a guilty plea in December 2018.  Navarrete will serve the remainder of his state sentence and the two sentences imposed in the federal cases in the Bureau of Prisons.  The two federal sentences will run consecutive to one another.

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Assistant United States Attorney Kimberly Harris prosecuted the case for the United States.