California man sentenced for drug trafficking operations in Aliquippa area

ALIQUIPPA ― A resident of Oxford, California, has been sentenced to five years in prison after he was connected to a drug trafficking operation in Beaver County in 2022.

According to federal judges, 24-year-old Christopher Andrew Salgado received the sentence on Friday after he was found guilty of trafficking over 500 grams of cocaine. As a part of this process, Salgado would mail parcels of cocaine to a residence in Aliquippa, according to the affidavit.

Investigators said between March and September of 2022, police began their investigation into a drug trafficking ring in western Pennsylvania. They discovered drugs were being mailed to an address in Aliquippa, and after they intercepted one of these packages, they found it contained two kilograms of cocaine. After this, the packages began to go to Salgado in West Virginia.

Surveillance revealed that Salgado would take the parcels to Pittsburgh International Airport, where he would pick up his co-defendant Jose Sanchez, who arrived from California. Salgado would drive Sanchez and the packages to Aliquippa, where they met with Romaro Foster Sr., another co-defendant in the case.

After supplying Foster, Salgado would take Romaro back to the airport and dispose of the materials. Police recovered a box that Slagado disposed of on one of these occasions from a fast food restaurant's trash can. They reported finding the shipping label for Salgado's West Virginia home and drug packaging materials. A field test of the box also revealed the presence of cocaine.

In August 2022, police intercepted another package headed for Salgado's West Virginia residence, which also contained two kilograms of cocaine. A search was done of Salgado's home after obtaining a search warrant, which revealed additional cocaine inside of his home.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: California man sentenced for drug trafficking operations in Aliquippa area