BLUEFIELD, WV (LOOTPRESS) – A Chicago man has been sentenced in federal court for his role in a conspiracy to smuggle contraband into a federal prison in southern West Virginia.
Arturo Joel Gallegos, 27, of Chicago, Illinois, was sentenced to three years of federal probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to introduce or attempt to introduce contraband into a federal prison.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Gallegos traveled to Welch, West Virginia, on February 1, 2024, with two other men from Chicago, identified as co-defendants Miguel Angel Aleman-Piceno and Francisco Alejandro Gonzalez.
Later that day, law enforcement officers apprehended Aleman-Piceno and Gonzalez near the fence of Federal Correctional Institution McDowell with a drone and camouflaged packages containing tobacco, four cell phones, chargers, phone cards, and marijuana.
Authorities also encountered Gallegos at a motel in Welch on the same day. Officers seized packaging materials, tobacco, and marijuana from his location.
As part of his guilty plea, Gallegos admitted that he conspired with the two co-defendants to fly contraband onto the grounds of FCI McDowell using a drone and that he expected to be paid for his role in the scheme.
Aleman-Piceno, 23, pleaded guilty on June 2, 2025, and Gonzalez, 25, pleaded guilty on July 7, 2025, each to conspiracy to commit the felony crime of attempting to introduce contraband into a federal prison. Both were also sentenced to three years of federal probation.
The case was announced by United States Attorney Moore Capito, who commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office.
Senior United States District Judge David A. Faber imposed the sentences, and Assistant United States Attorney Brian D. Parsons prosecuted the case.
