13-year federal sentence for Mexican cartel employee caught with 30 pounds of meth, lab in Shakopee

A man living in Shakopee when police uncovered a liquid meth conversion lab and 30 pounds of the drug at a home he maintained has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison in what is the latest case linked to Mexican cartel drug trafficking in Minnesota.

Saul Rodriguez Pineda, 40, did not dispute the federal drug distribution charges levied against him in 2022 but testified at a March trial in a failed attempt to mount a duress defense. Rodriguez Pineda claimed that he helped a Mexican cartel’s Minnesota meth distribution efforts after receiving “specific, credible threats of death” by a “powerful member” to himself and his wife and children.

Court filings say Rodriguez Pineda entered the United States illegally about 15 years ago.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, however, did not allow the St. Paul jury to consider a not guilty verdict based on coercion. Jurors quickly found Rodriguez Pineda guilty after the three-day trial, and Frank imposed his sentence last week. Frank also imposed five years of post-incarceration supervised release.

Frank’s sentence is below the nearly 20-year term sought by federal prosecutors. Assistant U.S. Attorney Raphael Coburn pointed out ahead of sentencing that the discovery of a lab intended to convert liquid methamphetamine to a solid, crystalline form represented a “rare and significant find by law enforcement.”

“Although the defendant describes a ‘humble’ upbringing in Mexico, nothing about the defendant’s childhood could explain or justify his criminal conduct in this case,” Coburn wrote.

According to court records, law enforcement learned from a confidential informant in summer 2022 that Rodriguez Pineda was selling methamphetamine to her and her romantic partner. The informant, wired with an audio- and video-recording device, later worked with investigators to carry out the three subsequent undercover drug purchases, all at the Shakopee home at which Rodriguez Pineda operated.

Officers arrested Rodriguez Pineda on Oct. 12, 2022 while executing a search warrant at the home. Among the items found during the raid were two orange coolers buried outside on the property. Between the two, officers tallied more than 30 Ziploc-style bags containing a pound of meth each, about half of which bearing the inscription of “Diablo.” The investigators also found pots, pans, strainers and coolers with residue that also tested for meth. According to court records, forensic scientists at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension later found that the meth seized from the home had a purity greater than 94%.

One agent testified at trial that the case involved, at the time, “the largest seizure of methamphetamine in the history of the Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force,” which worked the case alongside the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Shakopee Police Department.

Daniel Gerdts, an attorney representing Rodriguez Pineda, maintained ahead of sentencing that his client agreed to help a Mexican cartel distribute meth while under “explicit” threats to his and his family’s safety. He could not walk away from the operation nor report it to Minnesota law enforcement because police here “could not protect his wife and children in Michoacán once his deception was detected by his oppressor in Mexico,” Gerdts wrote in a memo ahead of sentencing.

“The threat essentially constituted a loaded gun put to the head of his wife and children in Mexico,” Gerdts wrote. “The foreign handlers enforced his cooperation through required daily contact and by sending their enforcers to supervise him.”

Gerdts described Rodriguez Pineda’s role as that of a caretaker who minded the Shakopee residence and distributed drugs to customers. He wrote that his client “was by all accounts an unknown replacement for the original person whose task was to mind the residence and distribute the drugs to the customers.” The original caretaker’s “precipitous disappearance without warning to the organization’s customers continues to bedevil the investigators,” Gerdts added.

Coburn pointed out before sentencing that, during their deliberations, jurors did not ask any follow-up questions about Rodriguez Pineda’s testimony that he had previously been held captive for several days when he visited his hometown in Michoacan, Mexico. Coburn argued that the story was not consistent with evidence presented at trial and did not make sense.

“The defendant’s abduction story appears to be pure, unsubstantiated fabrication, and nothing about that story in any way mitigates the seriousness of his criminal conduct,” Coburn wrote. “The evidence instead demonstrates that while the defendant was present in Minnesota selling vast amounts of methamphetamine, he was having fun, even offering the informant beer during at least one of the controlled purchases, showing off his new Hummer, and partying with cocaine (which was found in his bedroom).”