Drug Ring Leaders Who Operated In Bensalem Sentenced

BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA —Four members of a drug trafficking organization that operated in Bensalem and several other communities in the Philadelphia region have been sentenced.

Acting U.S. Attorney Nelson S.T. Thayer, Jr. said the drug trafficking organization mailed and distributed methamphetamine and cocaine in Bensalem, Quakertown, Plymouth Township, Coopersburg, Reading, and elsewhere.

In January 2024, the four suspects were charged with drug trafficking offenses and entered guilty pleas late last year.

Members of the DTO mailed the drugs from California to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where members of the organization would then pick up the packages for subsequent distribution to their dealers.

“These defendants took part in a cross-country conspiracy that brought significant amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine from California to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania,” Thayer said. “This office and our law enforcement partners at every level will continue to investigate and prosecute such traffickers, as we work to take illegal drugs off the street and make our communities safer.”

Among those sentenced were:

• Aived Abel Garcia, aka “Nephew,” 26, of Chula Vista, California, was sentenced to 70 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, for his involvement in the drug trafficking organization.
• Miguel Aliaga, aka “Migz,” 37, of Whitehall, and Avrian Haywood Mack, aka “The Kid,” 22, of Reading, were both sentenced earlier this month to 60 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release.
• The DTO’s leader, Michael Sanchez, aka “West Coast,” 33, of Los Angeles, was sentenced in January to 14½ years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release.

Sanchez organized and managed the DTO, overseeing the drug shipments. Garcia would travel from California to Pennsylvania to pick up the packages of narcotics, collect money owed to the DTO, and deposit it into a bank account.

He, Mack, and Aliaga then distributed bulk amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine to the organization.