{"id":324990,"date":"2025-10-22T23:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T23:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/324990\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T23:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T23:06:12","slug":"south-gate-drug-trafficking-ring-leader-sentenced-to-12-years-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/324990\/","title":{"rendered":"South Gate drug trafficking ring leader sentenced to 12 years \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A South Gate man was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison after trafficking drugs from Mexico by using cars with hidden compartments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jose Antonio Villegas, authorities have said, directed his drug trafficking ring to pick up drugs and arrange sales with specially modified &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/local\/7-charged-los-angeles-based-drug-trafficking-ring\/179067\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/local\/7-charged-los-angeles-based-drug-trafficking-ring\/179067\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trap cars,<\/a>&#8221; including BMWs, to hide and transport drugs, including cocaine, heroin and hash oil.<\/p>\n<p>Villegas, 37, pleaded guilty last year to one federal count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, according to the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p>A stash house linked to Villegas\u2019 group was also discovered in Downey, containing materials for making and distributing drugs, including pill presses and money counters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said the drug trafficking ring was behind at least 8.6 pounds of heroin, 114 pounds of cocaine, 55 pounds of marijuana, and 6.5 ounces of hash oil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South Gate man was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison after trafficking drugs from Mexico by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":324991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337,30226],"class_list":{"0":"post-324990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles","13":"tag-south-gate"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115420331318129939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}