Date: March 20, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
OAKLAND — Elbin Salvador Archaga-Ayestas, aka “Cuco,” was sentenced today to 50 months in federal prison for distribution of fentanyl and international money laundering. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down the sentence.
Archaga-Ayestas a Honduran national, was charged on Dec. 7, 2023, by a superseding indictment with one count of distribution of 40 grams or more of fentanyl and three counts of international money laundering in connection with sending the proceeds of his fentanyl sales to Honduras via a money services business in Oakland, Calif. On Nov. 7, 2024, he pleaded guilty to all four counts in the superseding indictment.
According to court documents, Archaga-Ayestas resided in Oakland and traveled to the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco to sell drugs. Archaga-Ayestas sold multiple ounces of fentanyl to an undercover officer on May 11, 2023. At the time of Archaga-Ayestas’s arrest on June 26, 2023, he was in possession of nearly 2.5 kilograms of fentanyl. In the months leading up to his arrest, Archaga-Ayestas sent proceeds from his fentanyl sales, wiring over $10,000 on several occasions, back to his family in Honduras through a money transmitting business, Envios Express. These transactions avoided Bank Secrecy Act reporting requirements by using multiple fake wire senders and multiple enlisted recipients in Honduras.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Gonzalez Rogers also ordered the defendant to serve four years of supervised release.
Acting United States Attorney Patrick D. Robbins, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Special Agent in Charge of the Oakland Field Office Linda Nguyen, and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Bob P. Beris made the announcement.
This prosecution is part of Operation Take Back America, which streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs). OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Kassabian is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Amanda Martinez and Andy Ding. The prosecution is the result of a year-long investigation by the DEA and IRS-CI.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.