Erlin Lucero-Asencio
INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge has vacated the trial date for a former Columbus resident who authorities say had ties to the Sinaloa Cartel after he agreed to plead guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
U.S. District Judge James R. Sweeney II on Monday vacated the Aug. 26 trial for former Columbus resident Erlin Lucero-Asensio, according to court filings in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.
The judge’s order came just days after Lucero-Asencio, who rejected a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in May, reversed course and filed a petition to plead guilty to four drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
Sweeney said in the court filing that a sentencing hearing would be scheduled in a separate order that had not yet been filed as of midday Tuesday.
Lucero-Asencio has been charged with one count each of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, possession with intent to distribute controlled substances and re-entering the United States as an undocumented immigrant who was previously removed due to a prior conviction, according to an updated indictment filed in June.
The conspiracy to possess charge carries a possible sentence of 10 years to life in prison, while the money laundering charge has a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The possession charge carries a potential sentence of 10 years to life in prison, and the re-entering charge has a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Lucero-Asencio, a Guatemalan national, was deported from the U.S. from Louisiana in 2020, according to court records.
Lucero-Asencio’s decision to reverse course is latest twist since he was indicted by a grand jury in September 2022 and charged with one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
Federal prosecutors initially offered Lucero-Asencio a plea agreement for both charges, according to court records. This past August, he filed a petition to plead guilty to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, including 500 grams of or more of methamphetamine. The petition that he signed stated that he understood that the crime he would be pleading guilty to carries a possible sentence of 10 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $10 million.
However, Lucero-Asencio declined to plead guilty to the money laundering charge, and federal prosecutors said they would proceed to trial on that count.
Lucero-Asencio then reversed course in November, telling his then-attorney Harold Samuel Ansell that he did not intend to plead guilty to either count in the indictment and wanted to be appointed a new attorney. Julie Chambers was appointed as his new attorney on Dec. 7.
Federal prosecutors re-extended the plea offer “to give new counsel a chance to work with Mr. Lucero.”
But Lucero-Asencio withdrew his petition to plead guilty in April, with his recently appointed attorney telling a federal judge that he “did not fully understand his sentencing guidelines or possible sentencing adjustments when he signed his original request to plead guilty.”
During a hearing last month, “the parties placed their respective positions on the record with regard to the status of plea negotiations. (Lucero-Asencio) chose to proceed to trial,” according to court filings.
Since then, an updated indictment filed last month charged Lucero-Asencio two additional crimes: possession with intent to distribute controlled substances and re-entering the United States as an undocumented immigrant who was previously removed due to a prior conviction.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials told The Republic in 2022 that the members of the drug trafficking ring were some of the biggest suppliers of drugs in Bartholomew and Jackson counties — including methamphetamine and fentanyl — and had ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, which experts say controls a wholesale distribution network in the U.S. and elsewhere to get drugs into the hands of local street dealers.
The charges stem from an investigation launched by the DEA in 2021, court records state. Over the course of the investigation, federal agents received authorization to intercept and monitor communications on nine cellphones, including two phones belonging to Lucero-Asencio.
DEA agents said the suspects would routinely communicate and discuss obtaining and distributing methamphetamine over the intercepted phones.
Additionally, federal authorities said several of the individuals involved in the drug trafficking network attempted to disguise financial transactions to conceal that the money came from distributing controlled substances.
Court filings state that the conspirators sent at least 324 wire transfers totaling $291,116 from Indiana to Phoenix, Arizona, and Mexico from Jan. 5, 2020, to April 26, 2022 — including a wire transfer made directly from Columbus to a municipality in Sinaloa, Mexico. Sinaloa is a state along the Pacific Ocean in northwestern Mexico.
Lucero-Asencio has a criminal history in Bartholomew County, according to local court records.
He was arrested in Columbus in 2013 after allegedly selling $5,300 in methamphetamine to a confidential informant on two occasions in the parking lot of the Kroger Marketplace on North National Road, according to a probable cause affidavit.
He also was arrested in Columbus in 2015 for possession of a cocaine after allegedly offering the drug to an individual in the bathroom of the El Corral Night Club on State Street.
