A Mexican national, Jaime Ortega-Urquidi, was sentenced on Mar. 13 to more than 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to drug trafficking and illegal reentry charges in Northeast Ohio.
Ortega-Urquidi, age 63, received a sentence of 188 months from U.S. District Judge John R. Adams following his November 2025 guilty plea to possession with intent to distribute cocaine and illegal reentry after removal for an aggravated felony conviction.
According to court documents, Lorain police stopped a vehicle on May 28, 2025, where Ortega-Urquidi was a passenger. A drug detection K-9 alerted officers to the presence of illegal drugs, leading them to discover approximately two kilograms of cocaine and more than $29,000 in cash inside the vehicle. Further investigation revealed that Ortega-Urquidi was part of an organization smuggling kilograms of cocaine across the US-Mexico border and distributing it from Texas to Ohio. He supplied local drug dealers in Lorain while being present illegally in the United States after a previous removal in October 2017 for another drug conviction.
The case was investigated by the FBI Cleveland Division, Lorain Police Department, U.S. Border Patrol-Sandusky Bay Station, and Elyria Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney James Lewis prosecuted the case for the Northern District of Ohio.
This prosecution is part of Operation Take Back America, described as a nationwide initiative aimed at using all resources of the Department of Justice “to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and to protect communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.”
