Washington Jury Finds Mexican National with Ties to the Jalisco Cartel Guilty of Trafficking in Hundreds of Pounds of Fentanyl, Heroin, Methamphetamine, and Cocaine in Eastern Washington and Montana

Spokane, Washington – A federal jury returned a guilty verdict in the trial of Luis Esquivel-Bolanos (a/k/a “Colorado”), age 45, of Guerrero, Mexico. Esquivel-Bolanos was found guilty on multiple drug trafficking and firearms charges.

United States District Judge Thomas O. Rice presided over Esquivel-Bolanos’s trial, which began April 14, 2025. At sentencing, which is set for July 16, 2025, Esquivel-Bolanos faces a maximum term of imprisonment of life in prison. He may also face removal from the United States.

The evidence presented at trial established that in January 2023, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) identified Esquivel-Bolanos as a member of a drug trafficking organization, which had flooded the Eastern District of Washington, including the Oroville area and the Colville Indian Reservation, with methamphetamine and fentanyl. The organization spread as far as central Montana, where many of the illegal drugs were being sold on Tribal land, including on the Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Rocky Boy’s, Fort Belknap, and Flathead Reservations. Within Eastern Washington, the organization was run by Esquivel-Bolanos and his co-defendant, Erubey Arciga Medrano. Esquivel-Bolanos was directly below Medrano, who previously pled guilty to his role in the drug trafficking conspiracy.

The evidence at trial further established that the organization used threatening tactics to maintain control over their drug-distribution activities.  In one instance, the organization threatened that the Jalisco Cartel, who supplied drugs to Esquivel-Bolanos and his associates, would kill a confidential informant, who was strip searched when the informant was accused of being a “snitch.” On a separate occasion – not long before police were able to intervene and shut down the organization – Esquivel-Bolanos and others arranged for members of the organization to go to the home of a person suspected of stealing more than thirty pounds of methamphetamine from the organization and to threaten to kill that the suspected thief.     

On April 19, 2023, BIA, DEA, the North Central Washington Narcotics Task Force, and other Federal, State, Local, and Tribal law enforcement, executed a series of federal search warrants at a number of homes in rural Okanogan County, near Oroville, Washington. In total, investigators seized approximately 161,000 fentanyl-laced pills (to include Mexi-blues and rainbow-colored pills), approximately 80 pounds of methamphetamine, approximately 6 pounds of heroin, and more than 2 pounds of cocaine. The BIA, DEA, and their partners also seized approximately 12 firearms. Many of these drugs were obtained inside a trailer, where Esquivel-Bolanos was living at the time.  

“I was able to work on this case and the investigation from the outset,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Richard Barker, who tried the case along with his colleagues Nowles Heinrich and Echo Fatsis. Acting U.S. Attorney Barker continued, “The volume of drugs removed from Eastern Washington and Montana communities, including from Tribal land, is staggering.  At the time of Mr. Esquivel-Bolanos’s arrest, and even now, the seizure from the Medrano-Bolanos drug trafficking organization was one of the largest ever in rural Washington. I am grateful for the tremendous law enforcement efforts by the BIA, DEA, and others, who put an end to the dangerous and threatening tactics used by Mr. Esquivel-Bolanos and his associates.” 

“Those who traffic drugs into our tribal communities need to know that they will be caught and prosecuted to full extent of the law.  I want to thank Acting U. S. Attorney Barker, the BIA Division of Drug Enforcement, the DEA, and all of the law enforcement agencies and AUSAs in Montana and Washington for their dedicated work on these cases,” said Kurt Alme, U. S. Attorney for Montana.

“The conviction of this drug trafficker, who was part of a Mexican Cartel, is the result of intense collaboration and coordination between many Tribal, Federal, State, and Local law enforcement agencies.  These agencies came together to address the drug trafficking occurring across many communities in Eastern Washington and Montana, including seven different Indian Reservations,” said Deputy Associate Director Tom Atkinson of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Division of Drug Enforcement.  “This investigation revealed the purposeful and specific exploitation of Indian Country by the members of this criminal network, illustrating the importance of continued vigilance and cooperation among law enforcement agencies.  This conviction sends a strong message that drug trafficking and the exploitation of vulnerable communities will not be tolerated.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs remains committed to empowering tribal law enforcement and to working with its partners to ensure the safety and well-being of all communities affected by drug trafficking.”

“Mr. Esquivel- Bolanos was second in command of the drug trafficking ring responsible for flooding the Oroville area and Colville Indian Reservation with deadly fentanyl and meth,” said David F. Reames, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Seattle Field Division. “Drug traffickers who purposely prey on our tribal communities are the worst offenders, and with the help of the jury this Mexican National will be held accountable.”

This case was prosecuted under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program. The OCDETF program provides supplemental federal funding to the federal and state agencies involved in the investigation of transnational drug trafficking and related offenses. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is partnering with federal, state, local, and Tribal law enforcement to specifically identify the criminals responsible for these drug related offenses in the Eastern District of Washington and pursue criminal prosecution.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Division of Drug Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the North Central Washington Narcotics Task Force.  The investigation team was assisted by the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Okanogan County Sheriff, Colville Tribal Police Department, and the Kalispel Tribal Police Department. The Eastern Washington cases are being prosecuted by Acting United States Attorney Richard R. Barker, Assistant United States Attorney Nowles H. Heinrich, and Contractor Echo D. Fatsis. Twenty-seven defendants were charged and convicted through a parallel prosecution handled by AUSAs and support staff in the District of Montana.  

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