Jose Alberto Camarena Rocha, a 31-year-old Mexican national, has admitted his involvement in a drug trafficking operation, which sold cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. Rocha entered a guilty plea for charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distributing one kilogram or more of heroin, as well as illegal reentry into the United States.
According to court documents and proceedings, Rocha, who resided in California, leveraged his connections with the Sinaloa Drug Cartel to facilitate the supply of controlled substances to associates in West Virginia, who then distributed the drugs in Berkeley and Jefferson Counties.
Rocha faces a federal prison sentence ranging from a minimum of 10 years to life for the drug-related charge and a maximum of two years for the reentry charge. The final sentence will be determined by a federal district court judge, considering U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutory factors.
The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Omps-Botteicher. The Eastern Panhandle Drug Task Force led the investigation, and several other agencies provided assistance. These include the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Postal Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and multiple state and local police departments across West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a Department of Justice initiative aimed at combating illegal immigration, dismantling cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and shielding communities from violent crime. This operation pools resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Trumble presided over the court proceedings. Further details can be found in the related press release at the Department of Justice website.