Tri-Cities landscaping business used to hide drug trafficking operation, DEA agent says

A Tri-Cities landscaping business allegedly has been used as a front for a large-scale drug trafficking operation with very close ties to Mexico.

Three men were indicted recently in federal court for their alleged roles in moving the drugs around the region.

Jose Mendoza-Ruelas, who has five felony charges, was identified by Drug Enforcement Administration officials as a major distributor of methamphetamine and fentanyl.

And when Joel Chavez-Duran was arrested last month, officers found at least 2,000 pain pills laced with fentanyl in his pants pocket.

The third defendant, Oscar Chavez-Garcia, lives in the Kennewick home where the landscaping business is based.

Mendoza-Ruelas appeared in U.S. District Court in Richland earlier this month via video from the Benton County jail.

He was arraigned on charges of: conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of pure meth and 400 grams or more of fentanyl; and two counts each of distributing pure meth and distributing fentanyl.

Chavez-Garcia is charged with conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of pure meth and 400 grams or more of fentanyl.

And Chavez-Duran faces the same conspiracy count, along with possession with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl.

The charges carry anywhere from five years to life in prison.

Chavez-Garcia and Chavez-Duran reportedly are brothers, and Chavez-Duran is an employee of his brother’s family landscaping business.

Zoe A. Chavez, who lives in the home with Chavez-Garcia, is the registered agent for Tri-Cities Affordable Landscaping LLC, according to state business records. She has not been charged in federal court in connection to this case.

The company opened in May 2020, originally with a Richland address. It is still active, records show.

DEA Tri-Cities case

When federal investigators later searched the property, they allegedly found $160,000 in cash and other evidence of drug-trafficking activity.

A criminal complaint filed on Chavez-Duran shows that task force agents with the DEA Tri-Cities started investigating the operation in May.

Over the following two months, they did “three controlled buys of pound quantities of methamphetamine and over 1,000 fentanyl-laced pills” from Mendoza-Ruelas, the court document states.

It became clear to agents from a recorded conversation that Jose Mendoza-Ruelas, who also goes by Gerardo, was working with a large drug trafficking organization, according to the documents.

The operation used several homes, along with 3829 W. Kennewick Ave. business, which has small buildings on the large parcel of land. All of the structures on the Kennewick property were being used “to facilitate their drug trafficking activities,” the document states.

Investigators got several federal search warrants in mid-July and started watching the Kennewick Avenue property.

On July 21, agents with the DEA task force and the Tri-City Metro Drug Task Force saw activity outside the main home before a Ford Edge and an Affordable Landscaping truck drove off. The truck was pulling a trailer that was loaded with a Bobcat tractor.

The SUV stopped at a Pasco convenience store while the business truck continued on to a “suspected remodel construction site” on the eastside of Pasco, the criminal complaint states.

The SUV, driven by Chavez-Duran, arrived at the job site a short time later.

Chunks of broken concrete were removed from the driveway area and loaded onto the trailer for just over an hour before the truck left.

About 40 minutes after leaving the site, Chavez-Duran — now driving the truck with the loaded trailer — returned to the same gas station he had visited earlier and went into the store.

He then drove back to the suspected job site and shortly after left in the SUV.

Agents at that point asked uniformed officers with Pasco and Kennewick police to stop the Ford Edge and execute the warrant they had for it.

The SUV was stopped at Highways 12 and 397 in Pasco.

Chavez-Duran was the only occupant of the Ford and reportedly checked a cellphone at least twice during the initial moments of the stop. He told the officers he didn’t know the phone number.

Officers told Chavez-Duran they would be seizing the SUV for a later search and asked if he would be willing to voluntarily talk with a DEA agent at the police station about a drug investigation.

He initially agreed, then asked if they could meet later or even talk over the phone, court documents said.

Chavez-Duran “was nervous and appeared to want to distance himself from the situation and/or vehicle,” the document states.

He was offered a courtesy ride and said he wanted to return to the job site, but was told he first had to be checked for weapons.

Chavez-Duran said he didn’t have any weapons on him, but an officer allegedly found a folded knife in a front pocket.

During the pat down, the officer also felt something in a cargo pocket, and Chavez-Duran admitted he had 2,000 pills, according to the criminal complaint. The light blue pills were separated into four plastic bags.

Chavez-Duran, 34, was arrested at that point.

In an interview with detectives, he claimed that he’d been recently contacted and asked to meet with someone to pick up the pills. He said he agreed to it because his girlfriend is pregnant and he needed the money, the court document states.

Chavez-Duran said he works for Affordable Landscaping and is related to several other people involved in the investigation, but claimed to have no knowledge of a drug trafficking organization.

Border smuggling arrest

The document shows that Chavez-Duran has been arrested twice by U.S. Border Patrol for transporting aliens and alien smuggling. He got 30 days on one case, while the document notes there was no disposition listed in the other case.

He also was arrested at the Arizona border in 2010 for manufacturing, distributing or disbursing of any controlled substance. The case resolution is not known.

During a July detention hearing on the current drug case, federal Magistrate Judge Mary K. Dimke said she has significant concerns about Chavez-Duran failing to appear in court if released because he has lived and traveled to Mexico and now owns a home there.

That is enhanced by his “record of issues related to illegal border-crossing activities, including the transportation of illegal aliens and a substantial quantity of marijuana,” Dimke wrote in the hearing minutes.

Chavez-Duran was born in California, and his mother and many of his siblings live in Kennewick, the minutes states. But his father currently lives in Mexico and Chavez-Duran is in regular contact with him, including a recent month-long stay.

Dimke said Chavez-Duran tried to hide his ties with Mexico and his father, telling pre-trial services officers that he’s only been to that country three or four times over his entire life.

Relatives, however, told officers that he lived in Mexico for about six years as a child and again in adulthood, only returning to the United States about one or two years ago. The pre-trial officers also learned that Chavez-Duran bought a home in Mexico last year.

Chavez-Duran reportedly told the court that he won’t leave Eastern Washington because his girlfriend is here and they’re expecting a child. But Dimke said his girlfriend has only lived in her current home for one month and is unemployed.

In denying his release, she also noted that GPS monitoring is not an effective tool when the risk of flight is involved.

This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.