FRESNO – A Guatemalan national, who was arrested in June 2019 for delivering large amounts of heroin and methamphetamine to a police informant in Fresno, pleaded guilty in the U.S. Eastern District Court (Court) earlier this month, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
Donis Ariel Maldonado, 28, who was living in El Monte, California at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty on Nov. 4, 2024 to conspiring to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute heroin and methamphetamine. At the time he was arrested, Maldonado was attempting to distribute 22 pounds of heroin and 80 pounds of methamphetamine from Mexico.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Escobar, who works out of the Fresno office, said Maldonado belonged to a large drug trafficking organization.
“There were multiple conspiracies in the case,” said Escobar. “Some overlapping. All were part of one overall drug trafficking organization.”
Maldonado’s case took a circuitous route. Escobar said he was indicted in January 2021. He did not come before the Court until May 2022.
“He was arrested in the Southern District, which is San Diego,” said Escobar. When asked about the amount of time that elapsed between June 2019 and Escobar pleading guilty, Escobar said part of the delay was there were no federal charges filed stemming from the 2019 arrest.
She took over Maldonado’s case in May 2023. As for the two years that elapsed between the time Maldonado made his May 2022 court appearance and his plea, Escobar said this was not unusual.
“It is not unusual for cases to take one to two years after the initial court appearance,” she said. “Our district judges have one of the highest caseloads in the county. We need more judges assigned to our district.”
Maldonado next goes before a judge on Feb. 18, 2025. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $2 million fine.
Multiple agencies participated in the investigation, including Fresno Police, Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, Fresno County District Attorney’s Office and the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office.
