Eight people have been sentenced for federal firearm and drug-trafficking charges following raids at a Haymarket chicken farm and other locations around the region.

Salvadoran national Juan Francisco Enriquez Cerritos Sr., 54, was sentenced Wednesday to two years and six months in prison for conspiracy to deal firearms without a license. Enriquez Cerritos is the last of eight defendants to be sentenced in the Homeland Security Task Force case that included the Haymarket search in January, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

According to court documents, from July 2024 to January 2026, Enriquez Cerritos — along with Jorge Steve Zepeda Irias, 43, a Honduran national in the country illegally, and Jenifer Icela Romero Fabian, 25, a lawful U.S. resident from El Salvador — sold dozens of firearms from Haymarket’s Rancho Los Cerritos leased by Enriquez Cerritos as well as from the Chantilly residence shared by Zepeda and Romero Fabian, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. The Haymarket ranch was managed by Zepeda. None of the conspirators are licensed to sell firearms, authorities said.

Additionally, Zepeda and Romero Fabian, as well as Oscar Raquel Cuellar Macua, 49, an El Salvadoran in the country illegally, and Evelyn Esmeralda Villatoro, 32, of Silver Spring, Maryland, traveled to various locations, including Washington, to obtain cocaine from, among others, co-conspirators Jorge Manuel Romero, 36, of Beltsville, Maryland; Oscar Vladimir Padilla Portillo, 32, of Bowie, Maryland; and Damon Darnell Gray, 36, of Washington.

Law enforcement conducted a series of controlled purchases of 47 firearms and multiple kilograms of cocaine from the conspirators, according to authorities. During a controlled purchase of firearms and cocaine on May 12, 2025, at the Chantilly residence, Zepeda fired a firearm into the ground and pointed a second firearm at another individual.

On Jan. 21 this year, law enforcement conducted controlled purchases of over a dozen firearms and four kilograms of cocaine from the conspirators and simultaneously executed search warrants at multiple locations across Washington and Northern Virginia as part of the investigation.

Pleas and sentences

• Padilla Portillo pleaded guilty on April 29 to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He was sentenced on Sept. 8 to seven years and six months in prison.
• Zepeda pleaded guilty on May 1 to conspiracy to deal in firearms without a license, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and using, carrying, and brandishing of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He was sentenced on Sept. 8 to 10 years and 10 months in prison.
• Gray pleaded guilty on May 1 to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced on Sept. 8 to 10 years in prison.
• Villatoro pleaded guilty on May 11 to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced on Sept. 15 to two years in prison.
• Romero Fabian pleaded guilty on May 26 to conspiracy to deal in firearms without a license and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. She was sentenced on Sept. 15 to three years and four months in prison.
• Romero pleaded guilty on May 29 to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced on Sept. 1 to 12 years and seven months in prison.
• Cuellar Macua pleaded guilty on July 7 to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced on Oct. 6 to five years and 10 months in prison.
• Enriquez Cerritos pleaded guilty on July 21 to conspiracy to deal in firearms without a license. He was sentenced on Oct. 27 to two years and six months in prison.

The case was part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The task force is a whole-of-government partnership aimed at eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The D.C. region’s force comprises agents and officers from the FBI; Homeland Security Investigations; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration; Diplomatic Security Service; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service; Naval Criminal Investigative Service; Transportation Security Administration Federal Air Marshals Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Enforcement and Removal Operations; and Washington Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, with the prosecution being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Prince William County Police Department assisted in the investigation.

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