Gaithersburg Man Sentenced For Cocaine, Heroin Trafficking

A Gaithersburg man will serve time in prison for his role in a cocaine and heroin trafficking conspiracy in Montgomery County, the Department of Justice announced.

Francisco Barahona, 35, was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years plus five years of supervised release.

Federal prosecutors said that from 2010 up until his arrest in January 2012, Barahona helped transport cocaine to Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and transported cocaine from Houston and Atlanta back to Maryland.
His house was to cut and repackage the cocaine and heroin. Some of the drugs were distributed through the DC-Metro region, according to prosecutors.  

Prosecutors said the investigation ended Jan. 25, 2012, when agents searched Barahona's home and seized 4 kilos of cocaine and 2 kilograms of heroin from the basement. A fifth of a kilo of cocaine and a handgun were recovered from a hidden compartment in a truck used to transport the drugs from Atlanta to Maryland.

Barahona was charged with conspiring to distribute more than a kilogram of heroin and five kilograms of cocaine; managing a place used to distribute and store drugs; interstate travel for narcotics activity; possession with intent to distribute heroin; using a telephone to further of a drug trafficking offense; and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and a kilogram or more of heroin.

He was one of three men sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus, the result of a conviction after a four-week trial. 

Noe Farid Medrano, age 42, of Adamstown, MD, was sentenced to 10 years, followed by five years of supervised release; Omar Steele, 43, of Upper Marlboro, MD,  was sentenced to 16 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

Prosecutors said Steele was the one who brokered the deal and coordinated the distribution of at least 10 kilos of heroin and 40 kilos of cocaine; Mendrano helped deliver the drugs to Montgomery County.