U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn, at the lectern, speaks with reporters Feb. 19, 2020 providing details of a massive drug bust involving Aurora suspects. PHOTO BY QUINCY SNOWDON/Sentinel Colorado 
Plastic bags stuffed with drugs that was inside a child’s backpack. The find was part of a coordinated Aurora drug bust announced Feb. 19, 2020. PHOTO BY QUINCY SNOWDON/Sentinel Colorado
AURORA | An Aurora woman has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for conspiring to transport large quantities of illicit drugs from Mexico into the U.S., according to the Department of Justice.
A plea agreement for Candelaria Vallejo-Gallo, 43, said that she “led a conspiracy” from March 2019 through February 2020 to obtain large quantities of meth, cocaine, fentanyl and heroin by working with Mexico-based suppliers. She is considered a “drug kingpin” by law enforcement for her lead role in an organization of five or more people violating the Controlled Substances Act.
During the 13-month period, Justice officials said law enforcement seized over 300 pounds of meth, two kilograms of heroin and two kilograms of cocaine. Police also found more than 15,000 fentanyl pills, which were “disguised to look like prescription oxycodone,” according to police.
“These illicit drugs came from load runs or packages destined for the defendant and seized in Utah and Colorado,” the agency said in an announcement of Vallejo-Gallo’s sentencing. “Intercepted calls from members of the defendant’s organization in 2019 also indicated the defendant’s receipt of multiple additional loads of more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine destined for redistribution.”
U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan characterized Vallejo-Gallo as a “dangerous drug dealer.” Law enforcement agents said through intercepted calls they learned she would often threaten violence to “organization members” and “expressed a desire to kill rivals.”
Last February, the Department of Justice announced 30 defendants, including Vallejo-Gallo, were indicted in two federal grand jury indictments for trafficking the drugs.
During a news conference about the arrests, law enforcement agents expressed particular concern for the disguised fentanyl pills.
“The influx of fake prescription opioids is a growing and deadly concern for this office and the law enforcement community as a whole,” said former U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn. ” … Had these pills reached the street, thousands of unwitting end users would have been at significant risk of overdose and death as we’ve already seen too much of lately in Colorado.”
Twenty years of the sentence are for conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to DOJ officials.
“The laundering of illegal drug profits is as important and essential to drug traffickers as the distribution of their illegal drugs. Without access to these ill-gotten gains, the drug kingpins are not able to finance their operations,” IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent Andy Tsui said in a statement. “The role of IRS:CI in narcotics cases is to investigate and prosecute the financial violations that support the disruption and dismantling of major drug trafficking organizations. We are proud to provide this financial expertise as we worked alongside our law enforcement partners to bring the members of this organization to justice.”