Ten people were sentenced for their roles in a large-scale heroin and cocaine ring in Colorado.

On Wednesday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced the completion of a major law enforcement operation resulting in 17 convictions for conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine, possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine, distribution of heroin and cocaine, money laundering, or using phones to facilitate felonies.

The charges stem from a group called the "Castroes." According to the United States Attorney for the District of Colorado the group is made up mostly of people from Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico. Between January 2010 and March 2015, this group transported heroin and cocaine from Arizona to Denver where they stored it in stash houses. Members then coordinated heroin and cocaine deliveries to approximately 20 street-level distributors in the Denver area.

The operation seized an estimated about 26 pounds of heroin, more than four pounds of cocaine, four guns and $190,000 in cash.

10 were sentenced as follows:

-Paul Rubio-Sepulveda aka Pelon – 235 months imprisonment, followed by 5 years supervised release

-Juan Miguel Espinoza-Romero aka Macizo – 144 months imprisonment, followed by 5 years supervised release

-Yonger Ricardo Matute-Venegas aka Yonger Venegas – 84 months imprisonment, followed by 5 years supervised release

-Jose Cruz-Cruz aka Jefferson – 78 months imprisonment, followed by 4 years supervised release

-Natasha Santistevan – 36 months imprisonment, followed by 2 years supervised release

-Luis Cruz-Medina aka Carlos Medina aka Marlon Arturo Velasquez-Medina aka Chucky – 40 months imprisonment

-Jose Nemecia-Garcia aka Jose Luis Galeas-Almendarez – time served, which was 33 months imprisonment

-Ema Belinda Bustamante-Raudales aka Yeime Belinda Saensz aka Jaime – time served, which was 39 months imprisonment, followed by 2 years supervised release

-Aaron Flores-Villegas aka Missael Valdez-Osorino – 70 months imprisonment, followed by 5 years supervised release

-Jose Lopez-Robles aka Javier Sanchez Vega aka Popote – 96 months imprisonment, followed by 4 years supervised release.

In addition, Marco Castro-Cruz was also named as a defendant in the Fourth Superseding Indictment. Along with defendants Kyle Adams and Reynieri Centeno-Velasquez, he was separately indicted in the District of Wyoming for Distribution of Heroin Resulting in Death. Those charges stem from a heroin transaction in Denver that led to an overdose death in Laramie, Wyoming. After pleading guilty in both cases, Castro-Cruz was sentenced to 240 months imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release. Kyle Adams and Centeno-Velasquez were separately sentenced to five and six year terms of imprisonment, followed by three year terms of supervised release.

Four other named defendants received felony convictions and seven defendants remain fugitives. The case is captioned U.S. v. Aguilar-Cruz, et al., Case No. 14-cr-00144-CMA.

The case was investigated by the Front Range Task Force.