Adiel Fuentes was a cog in a much bigger machine. He started working for Gerardo Cisneros halfway through 2012, according to court documents, and he took quite well to the type of work Cisneros employed him for. He was one of the main collaborators in Cisneros' burgeoning meth ring that DEA agents took down last year.
Cisneros' mom and sister would drive down to Mexico, take the meth produced there and deliver it to him in Dallas. Cisneros would then have Fuentes and some others fan out across the city, dealing the product. The ring leader would then send the money back to Mexico through carriers.
Fuentes called the product "cream," and when potential buyers got a hold of him, he'd list out the prices. He apparently had some trouble with math: $300 for an ounce, $2,800 for a quarter pound and $9,500 for a pound, which Fuentes sometimes called a "whole bow of yellow."
See also: The Rise and Fall of a North Texas Meth Ring
About a year after starting, Cisneros told Fuentes to head out to a house where another collaborator had stashed some cream. Apparently, some of it had gone missing, and Cisneros wanted Fuentes to figure out what happened.
Fuentes drove out to the house of Francisco Ruiz. When he called Cisneros later, Fuentes told him that Ruiz said he hadn't touched it. But then the ring leader called Ruiz and asked why he'd only had "100 grams of the work." Ruiz replied that's what Cisneros had given him. But Fuentes disputed this. He told his boss it was actually more than 400 grams.
After that incident, Fuentes continued to deal meth and bring in some solid cash, changing the prices on people seemingly as it suited his fancy. Fuentes asked one man if he wanted "two of those deals," code for 2 ounces of cream, and made a deal for "7.5 radios," or $750, over text message. Fuentes also collected $2,500 one time and $4,000 another and delivered it to Cisneros.
Eventually, though, the DEA closed in on the ring. Earlier this year, Cisneros was sentenced to 20 years in prison. On Wednesday, Fuentes, 34, was sentenced to 18 years for distributing cream and 15 years for laundering money. He's the 22nd person sentenced for their participation in the Cisneros' meth ring.
Send your story tips to the author, Sky Chadde.
