Jose De La Cruz Guerra Torres

After illegally entering the United States, authorities say a Mexican man became one of Park County’s larger drug dealers.

Jose De La Cruz Guerra Torres is now set to be deported from the country — but first, he must serve an eight- to 10-year prison sentence for three felony drug crimes.

Guerra came to the U.S. for “the financial opportunity to support his family and to pay off debts,” his defense attorney said at a hearing last fall. For roughly a year-and-a-half, Guerra said he lived in Powell, working in area sugar beet fields and at a Cody meat processor.

However, Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents concluded that Guerra was also earning money as “a large-scale distributor of controlled substances.” Powell police officers arrested Guerra for drunk driving in December 2022 and found more than $12,000 worth of cash in his car. Inside his North Cheyenne Street home and another vehicle, DCI agents seized not only more cash, but nearly a half-pound of meth, close to a half-pound of cocaine and 110 counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl. The street value of the drugs easily reached into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Disputing the facts

Guerra pleaded guilty to three felony counts of possessing drugs with intent to deliver, but at a November sentencing hearing, he disputed being a dealer.

“Yes, I did have the drugs with me, but I did not do anything with them,” Guerra said through a translator in Park County District Court, adding, “My language doesn’t permit me to sell things … I can’t speak English, so I can’t offer drugs to people.”

His denials are undercut by court filings, however: Though little of the evidence was used in Guerra’s criminal case, DCI Agent Shane Reece provided extensive evidence of drug dealing when he applied for a search warrant for the suspect’s property. 

For example, months before Guerra’s arrest, Reece said a confidential source reported buying pills from Guerra at a Powell bar. Another informant said they’d seen Guerra with at least 4,000 fentanyl pills, multiple ounces of meth and briefcases full of cash; they reported that “Guerra had other people wire money to Mexico to pay for the drugs,” Reece wrote.

The search warrant affidavit also alleged that Guerra was supplying substances to Victoria Zupko of Powell. Zupko was arrested a few months later, in March 2023, after she arranged for 10,000 fentanyl pills and a pound of meth to be shipped to her home. She is serving a five-year sentence in the federal prison system.

Reese’s affidavit indicates that DCI’s monthslong investigation involved extensive surveillance of Guerra, but that’s not what prompted his arrest.

Guerra was ultimately taken into custody after callers reported him driving erratically as he headed into Powell on U.S. Highway 14A. Powell police officers spotted Guerra weaving across the highway at low speeds and attempted to pull him over, but he was slow to do so. He eventually stopped in the middle of Coulter Avenue near downtown, taking eight minutes before getting out of his truck.

Arresting officers found a mostly empty bottle of Michelob Ultra and Guerra’s blood alcohol content was found to be more than double the level at which a person is presumed to be too impaired to drive.

When police spotted the neatly bundled cash, however, they contacted DCI, which spurred the search of Guerra’s home, other vehicle and cellphones.

Arguing the sentence

At November’s sentencing, his court-appointed attorney, Sarah Miles, asked for a sentence of probation or, alternatively, a four- to six-year prison sentence. Miles said Guerra is the sole provider for his family in Mexico, including his wife, four children and his parents. She said Guerra’s wife only earns about $11 a day, which is not enough for his family to survive on.

"Mr. Guerra does understand the seriousness of these charges and his actions,” Miles said.

Guerra offered multiple apologies and asked the judge for “an opportunity.” He also tried to emphasize that his initial arrest was for drunk driving.

“That’s why I’m here,” Guerra said through the translator.

While the DUI spurred the arrest, the three charges centered around the large amount of drugs found in Guerra’s home and vehicle.

Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Eichele said the 200 grams of cocaine, 200 grams of meth and 110 dosage units of oxycodone-fentanyl pills were “huge amounts of drugs.” Additionally, DCI agents noted that the cocaine and meth had been split into smaller, individual baggies for apparent resale.

Eichele asked for a nine- to 11-year prison sentence.

“It wasn’t a simple, if you want to paraphrase it, ‘A light user who sold one or two doses to his friend,’” the prosecutor said. “This was an organized importation and sales organization that had become a target of our DCI.”

District Court Judge Bill Simpson opted to impose the eight- to 10-year sentence. Guerra claimed he was only in the country to work and support his family, “and yet while he is here, he has violated the law and come into possession of a significant amount of controlled substances that can only be presumed not for personal use, but for resale,” Simpson said.

The judge said Guerra appeared to be part of “a larger, cooperative effort … to sell [and] distribute to the people of Wyoming and surrounding areas dangerous and harmful controlled substances.”

Guerra asked to have some of the seized cash returned to him, suggesting the bundled bills represented his winnings from a Montana casino. However, Simpson said the money might be subject to being forfeited to the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office.

Facing deportation

Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming charged Guerra with an additional felony: “reentry of removed alien.”

According to charging documents, Guerra had entered the U.S. illegally at least two previous times — in July 2006 in Texas and in September 2019, when he was caught about 400 yards north of the Mexican border, near Calexico, California. In those prior instances, he was “formally removed” to Mexico and barred from reentering the U.S., documents say.

But Guerra came back, indicating in court documents that he had been living in Powell since mid-2021. He pleaded guilty to illegal reentry.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne ordered Guerra to serve a year in prison, though that time will simply overlap with his state sentence. More significantly, the judge’s order says that once Guerra is released from custody, he must be “delivered to a duly authorized immigration official for deportation.”

Guerra is due to become eligible for parole in April 2028, with a projected discharge date in August 2029.

(Editor's note: This version corrects the spelling of Agent Reece's name.)