On the surface, she’s a baby-faced mother of two living a quiet life in Minnesota. But just beneath that façade, federal prosecutors claim, she’s actually running one the biggest meth trafficking rings in state history.
Macrina Perez, who has ties to both Minnesota and Mexico, was arrested in April at the US-Mexico border after being charged nearly two years ago in a sealed indictment that depended upon several government informants whose identities remain secret, the Star Tribune reports.
“Ms. Perez is as connected to Mexican drug cartels based on this evidence as anyone I have ever prosecuted, and it’s somewhat remarkable,” Assistant US Attorney David Steinkamp told a judge earlier this month.
Perez’s arrest followed a May 2016 bust at a stash house in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, where 140 pounds of meth was found, most of it packed for distribution. Drug agents also seized a freezer full of liquid meth and meth residue in roasting pans found in the kitchen.
Before learning her alleged role in supplying meth to the Twin Cities metro area, authorities tied a local drug dealer named Nichols Nelson to the stash house sometime in late 2015 or early 2016. Along with another couple identified as Dolores Ludmilla Castillo and Francisco Silvestre-Martinez, Nelson allegedly ran the stash house before being indicted and ultimately leading to charges against Perez. Castillo and Silvestre-Martinez have since pleaded guilty and are serving federal prison terms, according to the Star Tribune.
“She wasn’t the courier,” Steinkamp told a judge of Perez’s role in the ring. “She’s the CEO of this organization. She’s running it.”
A DEA agent testified last week that Perez’s travel documents were found inside the stash house, along with $130,000 in cash found inside a safe and a revolver. Confidential sources, according to court records, said Perez gave the gun to Castillo to protect himself while running the stash house.
Perez and Castillo met in 2013 before Perez “cultivated” her to start taking packages of meth — some up to 10 pounds each, according to the DEA agent. Castillo soon moved up to running the stash house, where up to 50-pound shipments of meth were regularly dropped off in a “very complex” network with many individuals and vehicles, DEA officials have said.
Perez’s attorney, meanwhile, argued Wednesday for her to be released with GPS monitoring as she awaits trial, claiming she does not pose a flight risk.
“She is adamant about fighting this case out,” attorney Gary Wolf said.
But Perez’s youth and her appearance belie the “fact that she was extraordinarily involved” in running the drug-trafficking operation, Steinkamp countered. If released, she’d never return to court to face the potential of decades in prison — and possibly life — if convicted, he said.
“I submit to you that we will never see her again if you release her, even to a halfway house,” Steinkamp said.
