Carpentersville man sentenced to 18 years on cocaine conviction

A Carpentersville man, who authorities said has ties to a Mexican drug cartel, was sentenced to 18 years in prison Wednesday for his connection to 16,000 grams of cocaine with a street value of $1.6 million allegedly stored in a warehouse in Lake in the Hills.

In October, Juan F. Sanchez-Cacho, 44, (who also goes by the name Francisco Sanchez-Cacho), was found guilty of possession with intent to deliver cocaine and possession of a controlled substance after a bench trial in front of Judge Michael Coppedge.

Before the sentencing hearing his defense attorney, Special Public Defender Thomas Carroll, argued a post-conviction motion. He said there was reasonable doubt and asked for a new trial.

Carroll said when Sanchez-Cacho was arrested Sept. 20, 2018, after a large-scale investigation involving the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Chicago Police Department, Lake in the Hills Police Department and Kane County Sheriff’s Office, he had no keys to the warehouse, no drugs or money on his person, nor did he have any phone numbers in his cellphone linking him to drug deals or the undercover officers involved in the investigation.

He also took issue with a meeting that occurred about a month before the arrest between Sanchez-Cacho, Ivan Moreno-Gallegos and an undercover Chicago police officer.

The meeting took place outside McHenry County, where they purportedly discussed a shipment of drugs and pricing for cocaine. No report was made from this meeting, Carroll said ,casting doubt over the investigation.

Carroll maintained that Sanchez-Cacho was not part of the drug enterprise, and pointed his finger to a third man whose name was found on clipboards inside the warehouse, though he was not charged.

“I’m confounded, quite frankly,” Carroll said adding that he has a “nagging suspicion that something else is at work” involving the agencies that led the investigation.

However, saying he believed the conviction was reached based on all the evidence presented, Coppedge denied Carroll’s motion for a new trial and proceeded with the sentencing hearing.

In asking for 30 to 40 years in prison, Assistant State’s Attorney Brette Dunbar said Sanchez-Cacho was part of an “elaborate,” “massive” and “sophisticated operation” organized by a Mexican drug cartel.

She cited trial testimony from Moreno-Gollegos, 21, who said he and Sanchez-Cacho lived together in the Carpentersville house, which was paid for by a Mexican drug cartel.

Moreno-Gollegos, who attended the meeting with Sanchez-Cacho and the undercover Chicago police officer a month before the arrest, took a plea deal in March. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for possession with intent to deliver cocaine.

Moreno-Gollegos testified that he was working with the cartel and had been since 2017, but said he was not sure if Sanchez-Cacho was, according to trial testimony.

On the morning of Sept. 20, 2018, a third man, who was not charged, asked the men to help unload goods that would be arriving at the Lake in the Hills warehouse in a semitruck, Moreno-Gollegos testified.

Although Moreno-Gollegos said he did not specifically know what he was unloading, he said he knew he was working on behalf of the cartel.

Police followed the men from their Carpentersville home to Lake in the Hills, where they saw Sanchez-Cacho use a key to unlock one of the warehouse doors, prosecutors said at trial.

Sanchez-Cacho remained at the warehouse with the third man while Moreno-Gollegos left in a red Toyota provided by the cartel. Officers stopped the vehicle shortly after and discovered 16 bricks of cocaine hidden within compartments inside a cooler and speaker box in the trunk of the Toyota, according to trial testimony.

The semitruck, however, was never located, Carroll said.

Similar items, including cars with man-made storage compartments in the floor, were located inside the warehouse, prosecutors said. Although investigators found no drugs inside the warehouse, they arrested Sanchez-Cacho based on his alleged involvement with planning the cocaine transfer, prosecutors said.

In asking for the lengthy sentence, Dunbar noted Sanchez-Cacho’s “prior delinquencies and convictions.”

In 1999, in California he was convicted of transporting and selling cocaine and placed on probation. He also illegally entered America “several times” and had been deported.

“He does not follow the laws of the U.S.,” Dunbar said.

Carroll asked the judge to sentence Sanchez-Cacho to the minimum of 15 years in prison. He said a lengthy prison term would only serve to “reward what I consider to be questionable police work.”

“I recognize there was a large quantity of cocaine …,” Carroll said. “He was there, but there is no evidence presented that my client ever touched it or even knew it was there.”

He acknowledged his client’s conviction in California and said he was 23 years old then, and a much different person than he is today.

He also spoke of the times Sanchez-Cacho illegally crossed the border into the U.S.

“Yes, he has violations,” Carroll said. “He came across the border and got deported. That doesn’t make him unusual or different than most Mexican nationals who come across the border for a better future.”

Through an interpreter, Sanchez-Cacho apologized to the court but said there were other people involved.

“You are a just judge,” he said. “What you give me I will accept. I ask forgiveness if I committed something.”

Sanchez-Cacho must serve 75% of his sentence and will receive credit for the 27 months he has been in jail since his arrest.