18 charged in Indiana meth drug ring, tied to Mexican cartel

INDIANAPOLIS — Eighteen individuals from central and southern Indiana have been indicted by a federal grand jury on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of Indiana, 15 of the defendants were taken into federal custody in Indianapolis, Columbus, Seymour, Terre Haute and Detriot, Michigan on Thursday. Three defendants remain at large.

Authorities stated that to date approximately 82 pounds of methamphetamine, 1750 fentanyl pills, 35 grams of fentanyl, one kilogram of cocaine, four pounds of marijuana and a large quantity of suspected THC gummies have been seized as part of the investigation.

“In 2021, there was over 105,000 drug overdose deaths, and obviously fentanyl played a critical role in this. Two milligrams is considered a lethal fatal dosage unit,” explains Michael Gannon, DEA Indiana Assistant Special Agent in Charge, “DEA labs that have analyzed the pills have found that four out of every ten of the pills analyzed had a potential fatal dosage in it.”

In addition to the drug seizures, authorities have seized approximately $9,000 in U.S. currency as well as nine firearms.

The U.S. Attorney states that if convicted on the conspiracy with intent to distribute charges, each faces between 10 years to life imprisonment with a $10,000,000 fine. If convicted of money laundering, each faces up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

“Yesterday we had a large scale enforcement operation which resulted in 16 federal search warrants,” says Gannon,“ This organization had connections with the Sinaloa Cartel, and because of that they were moving large amounts of methamphetamines in the multi-hundred pound capabilities.”

Before the defendants were in federal court on Friday, FOX59’s Mike Sullivan spoke with the wife and friend of defendant Eulailo Murillo-Resura. His friend says Murillo-Resura was living with her nephew. She says law enforcement raided their home near Tremont Street and 16th Street. The DEA believes that is one of the location that was hit. She says Murillo-Resura and her nephew were handcuffed and taken to a nearby Kroger for questioning. After talking with police, she says her nephew was not arrested, and was released.

“I don’t want to get into the specifics of what we got it in certain locations,” tells Gannon, “We had to use a lot of our resources to identify the methods of this organization.”

In addition to federal charges, five defendants face state charges stemming from Jackson County while another faces charges from Bartholomew County.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the drug trafficking ring these suspects were a part of is connected to a Mexican cartel.

The following five Individuals face state prosecution in Jackson County:

The following individual faces state prosecution in Bartholomew County:

The prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces investigation and was investigated by the DEA and the Seymour Police Department in conjunction with several other federal and local agencies.