United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Luis Avelar, a 28-year-old resident of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced on January 22, 2025, in federal court for his involvement in a methamphetamine distribution conspiracy. United States District Judge Brian C. Buescher imposed a sentence of 262 months in prison. Following his release, Avelar will serve a five-year term of supervised release.
Avelar's involvement in meth distribution activities came to light in 2020 when Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents identified him as a suspect operating in the Omaha area. On March 11, 2020, Avelar was observed leaving an apartment with a backpack shortly before a confidential source purchased one pound of meth from another individual. On April 18, 2023, another attempt to purchase half a pound of meth from Avelar was made by a confidential source. However, the transaction fell through as the supplier declined to sell less than one pound.
On December 30, 2023, DEA agents interviewed Avelar at the Douglas County Jail. After being informed of his rights, he confessed to participating in meth distribution since 2020. He admitted to selling approximately four or five pounds of meth on behalf of a Mexico-based drug supplier and disclosed renting a storage unit for storing the drug. Following an arrest at a hotel involving someone else, Avelar cleared out the storage unit and delivered at least ten pounds of meth to an associate's residence. Investigators verified that Avelar rented this storage unit from November 7 to November 23, 2022. Surveillance footage captured him at the facility on November 23, coinciding with Bellevue police seizing eleven pounds of meth from a motel room.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration as part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation aimed at identifying and dismantling high-level criminal organizations threatening the United States through coordinated efforts among multiple agencies.