Greeneville Man Sentenced For Conspiracy To Distribute Methamphetamine And Money Laundering

Greeneville, Tenn. – On January 24, 2020, Juan Moreno-Pantiga, 30, of Bulls Gap, was sentenced before the Honorable Clifton L. Corker, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville.

Moreno-Pantiga plead guilty to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to commit money laundering.  Moreno-Pantiga was sentenced to 262 months in prison and will be deported to Mexico after completion of his term of incarceration.

Moreno-Pantiga operated a used car lot from which he and his associates sold methamphetamine and laundered drug proceeds.  Additionally, Moreno-Pantiga owned a stash-house where law enforcement recovered over 3 kilograms of methamphetamine, 450 grams of cocaine, 41 kilograms of marijuana, and five firearms during the execution of a search warrant.  Moreno-Pantiga admitted he was part of a methamphetamine distribution network responsible for trafficking multiple kilograms of methamphetamine supplied by large trans-national criminal organizations.  Moreno-Pantiga and 23 others were charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on January 8, 2019. All defendants have plead guilty.

The multi-agency investigation included Greene County Sheriff’s Department, Greeneville Police Department, Hawkins County Sheriff’s Department, Hamblen County Sheriff’s Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, Washington  County Sheriff’s Department, Tusculum Police Department, Baileyton Police Department, Elizabethton Police Department, Third Judicial Drug Task Force, Fourth Judicial Drug Task Force, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), Tennessee National Guard Counter-drug Task Force, Tennessee Highway Patrol, United States Marshal Service, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)..

Assistant U.S. Attorneys J. Christian Lampe and Andrew C. Parker represented the United States.

The investigation is a result of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s drug supply reduction strategy.  OCDETF was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multi-level attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations.  Today, OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its member federal agencies in cooperation with state and local law enforcement.  The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s drug supply.