Manatee drug dealer gets decades-long prison sentence in meth trafficking case
A Mexican national faces decades in federal prison after prosecutors say he trafficked large amounts of methamphetamine sold in Manatee County and the Tampa Bay area.
A federal judge sentenced 31-year-old Lorenzo Valerio-Popoca to 25 years in prison after jurors in July found him guilty of conspiring to distribute and distributing meth, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said.
Prosecutors said Valerio-Popoca supplied large amounts of meth to buyers in Manatee County as part of a trafficking operation that stretched from Mexico to Florida between 2017 and 2018. Investigators said Valerio-Popoca brokered bulk drug deals and relied on couriers to transport the drugs to buyers throughout Manatee and Hillsborough counties.
Trial evidence showed Valerio-Popoca often arranged transactions involving one to two kilograms of methamphetamine at a time, according to prosecutors. In March 2018, one of his couriers delivered two kilograms of methamphetamine to a buyer in Hillsborough County before law enforcement seized the drugs, according to an arrest report.
Prosecutors said Valerio-Popoca left the area before his 2019 indictment and remained a fugitive for nearly three years. Authorities arrested him in 2022 in Pasadena, Texas, after seizing more than 10 kilograms of methamphetamine linked to his trafficking organization, according to the report.
The investigation involved the Drug Enforcement Administration along with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Pasco Sheriff’s Office and Clearwater Police Department. Pasadena police in Texas also assisted, according to federal officials.
Federal prosecutors said the investigation was part of Operation Take Back America, a Department of Justice initiative targeting transnational criminal organizations and large-scale drug trafficking networks operating in the United States.
