A Mexican national living illegally in Houston has been sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison for his leadership role in a multi-state drug trafficking organization, according to an announcement by U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.
Baldemar Navarro-Jaimes, 36, pleaded guilty on July 1, 2025, to conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. U.S. District Judge David S. Morales sentenced him to 234 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. During sentencing, Judge Morales commented on the large quantity of drugs involved and the impact on lives caused by both drugs and firearms.
According to prosecutors, Navarro-Jaimes led an organization that transported drugs from Mexican cartels into Houston and Dallas before distributing them further into states such as Illinois, New York, Georgia and North Carolina. The group also moved firearms into Mexico for cartel use.
Navarro-Jaimes was directly linked to about nine kilograms of cocaine, 23 kilograms of methamphetamine and over ten firearms. He brokered narcotics and firearm deals for the organization and used a stash house in Dallas for these activities. Authorities searching another residence connected to him found four firearms, ammunition and several cellphones.
Navarro-Jaimes remains in custody awaiting transfer to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility.
The case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tyler Foster, Liesel Roscher and Ashley Martin prosecuted the case.
The prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative under Executive Order 14159, which aims to combat criminal cartels, transnational organizations and human smuggling rings operating within the United States and internationally. The HSTF brings together agencies including ICE-HSI; FBI; DEA; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Department of Transportation/IRS; Interpol/Department of State; Naval Criminal Investigative Service; with prosecutions led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
“The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad,” according to officials involved in the effort. “Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of U.S. law enforcement towards identifying, investigating and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes these organizations commit… The HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas covers a region that includes Houston as well as Galveston, Corpus Christi, Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville offices across 43 counties with a population over nine million people. The office employs more than 200 attorneys who prosecute federal crimes such as drug trafficking while handling civil cases involving government interests. Notable past leaders have included Alamdar Hamdani, who served from 2022 through 2025.
