On Thursday, May 29, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin announced that several individuals were arrested on alleged charges of fentanyl and cocaine trafficking. The charges also alleged that they had been involved with immigration offenses. This came after multiple search warrants were utilized in Wisconsin’s eastern courts district in coordination with the central district of California. Each of those arrested have been charged with the illegal trafficking of various drugs, including both fentanyl and cocaine.
Among those arrested was a man whose listed address is in the Town of Merton. Joseph Marincic was among those named as having been charged in the widespread case. Marincic’s exact charges have not yet been made public, but the United States Department of Justice has alleged that everyone listed in the case was involved with drug trafficking to some extent. If these individuals face the greatest extent of their convictions, they could serve up to forty years in prison for the alleged crimes.
According to the Department of Justice, these individuals were in possession of various controlled substances, not all of which were named, but notably including both cocaine and fentanyl. They planned to distribute these substances through the use of communication networks that may have spread between California and Wisconsin. This operation alleged began as far back as March of 2023 and was being utilized up until the time when the arrests were made.
This was all conducted as part of a long term investigation operation coordinated by several national and local government agencies that included law enforcement members from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the North Central High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigations. Several local agencies were involved in the arrests of the charged individuals including the FBI and United States Marshal Service, the Brookfield Police Department, the Waukesha Police Department, and the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department among others.
This investigation came in the wake of the Deputy Attorney General’s implementation of the “Take Back America” program. It comes as part of the Trump administrations plans to secure communities from criminal threats. Some of its key purposes includes preventing illegal immigration, eliminating drug cartels, and establishing homeland security task forces. Two of the individuals involved in this case are alleged Mexican nationals who had unlawfully entered into the United States. If convicted on these charges, those two men could face a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
