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(Cedar Rapids, IA) -- A jury in federal court in Cedar Rapids has convicted a drug dealer found with 200 pounds of meth and 23-pounds of fentanyl. Investigators say 31-year-old Luis Carlos Corral Lopez of Sonora, Mexico faces up to 10-years in prison when he's sentenced. Evidence at trial showed Lopez was sent by a Mexican drug cartel to Waterloo to run the organization's meth operation between 2020 and last year.
The jury convicted Corral Lopez of one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. The verdict was returned this (Thursday) afternoon after five hours of jury deliberations.
Sentencing before United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Corral Lopez remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Corral Lopez faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $10,000,000 fine, and a lifetime term of supervised release following any imprisonment.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Dillan Edwards and Ashley Corkery, and it was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program of the United States Department of Justice through a cooperative effort of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force consisting of the Waterloo Police Department, Cedar Falls Police Department, Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Department, Evansdale Police Department, Waverly Police Department, Hudson Police Department, La Porte City Police Department, and the Bremer County Sheriff’s Department; the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the United States Postal Inspection Service; and Homeland Security Investigations.