Thonotosassa man pleads guilty to federal drug charges

As deputies secretly watched, Victor Navarrete-De La Cruz hoisted a heavy duffle bag into his truck.

Using binoculars, he scanned the horizon looking for law enforcement before driving away from the house on State Road 60 in Plant City.

When deputies pulled him over a short time later, he gave permission to search his duffle bag.

Inside was $1.6 million in cash.

"I'm dead," he said.

Inside the house Navarrete-De La Cruz had left, deputies found $2 million in cash, according to a federal prosecutor.

It was the beginning of what would turn out to be the largest combined seizure of cocaine and cash in the history of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The bust capped a four-month investigation that also involved Tampa police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Before it was over, deputies would seize a total of nearly $4 million in cash and $5 million worth of cocaine.

Today, Navarrete-De La Cruz pleaded guilty to a federal drug conspiracy charge, which carries a minimum mandatory prison term of 10 years. The only way to avoid the minimum is to provide what prosecutors deem "substantial assistance," or a high level of cooperation in prosecuting others.

Navarrete-De La Cruz, 24, of Thonotosassa, who was described by Sheriff David Gee as the ringleader of this conspiracy, told a federal judge today he is cooperating and hopes to receive credit for substantial assistance.

"That's quite a haul of money," U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara said. "Hopefully, with the ill-gotten gains, the people of this community will benefit through more effective law enforcement and keeping the community safe."

According to Navarrete-De La Cruz's plea agreement, he went to the house on State Road 60 on April 22 at the direction of co-defendant Ricardo Manuel Lopez, 43, of Plant City, who was involved in smuggling large amounts of cocaine from Texas to Florida for distribution.

The day before, Navarrete-De La Cruz, at Lopez's direction, conducted countersurveillance, watching for law enforcement while another co-defendant, Nicholas Sandoval-Rivera, delivered a multikilo shipment of cocaine to 2907 Bloomingdale Ave. in Brandon.

The cocaine originated in South America, traveled to Mexico and crossed the border in Texas before coming to a smuggling organization based in Plant City, investigators said at the time of the arrests. The drugs were hidden in spare tires on car-carrier trucks.

Three to five shipments a week - each perhaps 50 kilograms - were sent to Hillsborough. Money from drug sales was sent back to Texas in vehicles on car-carrier trucks.

On Wednesday, deputies found 179 kilograms of cocaine in an underground storage container at a Valrico home.

Investigators said they learned from a confidential informant that Lopez's brother in Texas was sending Lopez a shipment of cocaine.

In addition to Navarrete-De La Cruz and Lopez, three others were arrested, and guns and vehicles were seized in addition to money and drugs. Those arrested include three illegal immigrants, Gee said.

Also arrested were Sandoval-Rivera, 45, of Lakeland; Juan Luis Gonzalez, 32, of Valrico; and Irasema Morena-Rojas, 26, of Tampa.

De La Cruz, Morena-Rojas and Gonzalez, who are from Mexico, also are being held on immigration detainers. Gee said Gonzalez previously had been deported to Mexico.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Muench said in court today that Gonzalez has pleaded guilty in secret. Details of that plea were sealed.