United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Eswin Lopez-Bravo, 52, of Lexington, Nebraska, was sentenced on May 28, 2024, in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska for distribution of methamphetamine. Senior United States District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Lopez-Bravo to 54 months imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After Lopez-Bravo’s release from prison, he will begin a 5-year term of supervised release. In addition to the prison sentence, Lopez-Bravo will forfeit $4,106 to the United States.
In January of 2023, based on information that Lopez-Bravo was selling drugs out of a hotel in Lexington, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for his room and located Lopez-Bravo and another individual, who had an active federal warrant and was arrested. The room was registered to Lopez-Bravo and had been for quite some time, despite the fact Lopez-Bravo also had a house, where he resided with his wife and children. In the course of this investigation, officers learned that Lopez-Bravo distributed meth out of the room. During the search of the room, officers located crystal shards that tested positive for methamphetamine, plastic baggies concealed under the mattress and on a nightstand, and 13.5 grams of meth concealed under a lamp. Subsequent lab testing confirmed 12 grams of the 13.5 grams recovered was pure methamphetamine. Also recovered from Lopez-Bravo was $1,712 in U.S. currency. Lopez-Bravo stated that this was from his work at a feedlot, but subsequent investigation found that his most recent paycheck had only been $800.
On June 15, 2023, Lopez-Bravo was arrested on a state arrest warrant. A search incident to this arrest located 9.8 grams of meth in his front pants pocket and an additional $2,394 in U.S. currency.
Pursuant to this investigation, Lopez-Bravo’s phone was also seized and searched. Text messages found on the phone were indicative of the buying and selling of narcotics, including on behalf of an individual known to law enforcement to be incarcerated in the state of California. Multiple photos on the phone showed several thousand dollars’ worth of money orders being sent to North Dakota and California at this individual’s request.
This case was investigated by the CODE Drug Task Force, Lexington Police Department, Dawson County Sheriff’s Office, the Nebraska State Patrol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
