Eighth defendant enters guilty plea in drug ring case

According to a press release from Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth M. Martinez, the eighth of nine defendants charged in connection to a Taos County-based heroin drug ring has entered a guilty plea in federal court in Albuquerque.

Juanita Romero, 35, pleaded guilty Feb. 23 to conspiring to distribute heroin. She is one of several co-defendants to be identified as a relative of Ivan Romero, 40, who has been named in several plea admissions as the leader of what was largely known as a "family-run" heroin smuggling and money laundering operation.

In entering her plea, Juanita Romero admits that she began obtaining a daily allotment of heroin from Ivan Romero in late 2014 to sell to residents of the Peñasco area. A small portion of that allotment, she also acknowledged, was for her own personal use.

In total, it is estimated that the defendant distributed between 100 to 400 grams of heroin through December 2015, when law enforcement agents filed an eight-count indictment against her and seven co-defendants initially charged in the case. A ninth defendant, Elena Carabajal, 26, was added in a superseding indictment filed in February 2016.

Under the terms of the plea agreement reached with the court, Juanita Romero faces a maximum sentence of 33 months in prison, followed by a term of supervised release.

Seven other co-defendants had previously submitted guilty pleas in the case – most recently, Nicholas Baca, 31, who played a similar drug "runner" role in the operation.

The enterprise was active from at least June 2012 through December 2015 and is believed to have been one of the most lucrative to have operated in the Taos area in recent years.