Seven years for Honduran drug trafficker with 4.5kg of fentanyl, $96,000 in cash and quarter of a million in the bank

A Honduran drug trafficker who commuted to San Francisco to sell his wares was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment today after a federal court heard he was thrice caught with huge quantities of fentanyl and tens of thousands of dollars in cash only to be repeatedly released.

Milton Varela Arteaga, 29, was arrested in May 2023 after a search of his Oakland home turned up more than 2kg of fentanyl, 1.3kg of methamphetamine, an assortment of other drugs and $70,470.

The next month Arteaga was arrested again – this time by deputies from Alameda County Sheriff’s Department – who stopped his car as it was leaving Oakland Airport. In the car, they found more than 2kg of fentanyl, an assortment of other drugs, and more than $12,000.

In November 2023 federal officials executed a search warrant at Arteaga’s home in Oakland and found $13,265 in cash and the keys to a black Mercedes parked outside. He was arrested after more than half a kilogram of fentanyl was found in the vehicle.

Arteaga earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to distribute 40g or more of fentanyl.

“First of all I want to apologize to God, and everyone here, and to the State of California for what I have committed and I’m sorry,” said Arteaga this morning in courtroom 6 of San Francisco federal courthouse through a Spanish translator.

“Everyone makes mistakes and there has to be an opportunity to change,” he added.

“We can call them mistakes,” said U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. “But this drug could kill thousands and thousands of people – and it was done repeatedly. So, yes, this is terrible.”

“I don’t see how the defendant will be rehabilitated by the system,” the judge added. “I think the only thing that will work is significant punishment and then deportation.”

He imposed a term of seven years of imprisonment and told Arteaga that he would likely be removed to Honduras at the conclusion of his sentence. He was previously deported in 2018.

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