A man who pleaded guilty to distributing methamphetamine throughout Alaska — including Juneau — was sentenced in Federal Court last week, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage.
U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason sentenced 42-year-old Girdwood resident Jorge Cardenas to 11 years in prison and five years of supervised release, according to the release. Cardenas, who also goes by George Castineda, is a Mexican national, prosecutors said, and pleaded guilty on July 21, 2017.
For at least five years prior to his arrest in March 2017, court documents read, Cardenas trafficked meth and other illegal controlled substances throughout Southcentral and Southeast Alaska, including Anchorage and Juneau. Cardenas had a truck in Juneau, according to the release, and about 730 grams of meth was found in the truck and in his home in Girdwood.
Law enforcement officials found that Cardenas was making so-called “gunpowder heroin,” which is heroin laced with fentanyl, prosecutors said, and that he spoke openly about the likelihood of the substance causing overdose deaths. According to the release, Cardenas had a shrine in his home dedicated to worshipping Jesus Malverde, the so-called “Patron Saint of Drug Dealers.”
The Juneau Police Department assisted in the case, according to the release, alongside the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), Alaska State Troopers (AST), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Cardenas was arrested with the assistance of the United States Marshal Service (USMS) and the Anchorage Airport Police, according to the release.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
