Two Men Sentenced for Their Role in a Transnational Heroin Trafficking Operation

 Two men have been sentenced in the last week for their role in trafficking heroin in the Northern District of Oklahoma, announced U.S. Attorney Trent Shores.

Osiel Serafin Calderon, 25, and Rudolph Gorniak, 29, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Claire V. Eagan. Calderon received 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Gorniak received 41 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

“A transnational heroin trafficking organization has been dismantled as a result of Operation Smack Dragon. I credit the dedicated efforts of Senior Litigation Counsel Joel-lyn McCormick who leads our Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force,” said U.S. Attorney Trent Shores. “These drug trafficking criminal enterprises are some of the most destructive forces in the world. Their criminal cell heads spread violence, drugs, and addiction from community to community. I am grateful to all of our law enforcement partners who have stayed the course in tracking down these traffickers, arresting them, and disrupting their criminal operations.”    

This transnational criminal organization’s hierarchy had clearly defined roles, as leaders from Mexico supplied heroin to the Tulsa “cell heads.” These “cell heads” were originally from Mexico but lived in Tulsa. Stille Giovanni Gutierrez Vivanco, allegedly directed, from Mexico, the overall drug trafficking operations in Tulsa by delegating responsibilities for the import and distribution of the heroin and for the movement of the proceeds from heroin sales. The criminal organization smuggled heroin into the United States and transported the drug to storage locations in Tulsa where they prepared it for distribution throughout the United States. After preparing the heroin, the coconspirators would repackage it for distribution to mid-level distributers, who would then redistribute it to street-level dealers until it eventually found its way into the hands of customers.

Osiel Serafin Calderon pleaded guilty to assisting in delivering heroin to defendant Jose Garcia by transporting the heroin from Southern California to northeastern Oklahoma from January 2019 through June 2019. He also assisted in collecting drug proceeds from Garcia. Garcia supplied heroin to numerous individuals for re-distribution, collected payment from dealers and returned the funds to the Mexican source of supply.

Rudolph Gorniak pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to distribute heroin from January 2019 through June 2019. Over the course of several weeks, Gorniak purchased quantities of heroin from defendants Alphonso Caldwell and Devin Hartzell. He purchased heroin, redistributed it to third parties, and relied on the payment from customers to purchase additional heroin. 

The two were among more than 30 individuals indicted in 2019 for drug conspiracy and other crimes related to the cartel’s heroin operations. The prosecution resulted from Operation Smack Dragon, an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations led the investigation in partnership with the U.S. Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service- Criminal Investigation; the Oklahoma State Attorney General’s Office; and Tulsa Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel-lyn McCormick is prosecuting this case. AUSA McCormick is the Lead Attorney for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit for the Northern District of Oklahoma.