MISSOULA — A California man who admitted to a drug trafficking crime for shipping methamphetamine from the Sinaloa Cartel into the Butte community for redistribution was sentenced to eight years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.
Heriberto Tavares, of Anaheim, California, pleaded guilty in October 2022 to possession with intent to distribute meth.
In court documents, the government alleged that from about November 2018 to November 2019, Tavares served as a stash house for the Sinaloa Cartel. Tavares acted as the shipping services for the cartel, shipping drugs from Mexico into the United States at the direction of the drug trafficking leaders.
Tavares was indicted as part of an investigation into a large-scale drug trafficking organization that brought massive quantities of meth, counterfeit oxycodone pills and heroin into Butte for redistribution throughout the state. The investigation resulted in federal convictions of 22 persons. Tavares is the last defendant to be sentenced.
