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Written by: A. Smith
Published January 29, 2026 @ 10:17 AM ET
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. – A Carrollton woman has pleaded guilty to her role in what federal prosecutors described as a massive methamphetamine trafficking operation that also involved harboring undocumented immigrants to carry out the illegal scheme.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, 33-year-old Jackelyne Marroquin admitted that in March 2024 she rented a home in Stone Mountain that was used as a stash house by a drug trafficking organization to store and distribute large quantities of methamphetamine. Prosecutors said Marroquin knowingly allowed the home to be used for the operation and provided financial support to individuals working inside the house.
On April 2, 2024, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and local law enforcement executed a search warrant at the Stone Mountain residence. Inside, investigators seized approximately 760 pounds of methamphetamine that was about 99% pure, with an estimated street value between $1.45 million and $1.9 million. Authorities said the drugs had been smuggled from Mexico concealed in bags of charcoal. Agents also located buckets of methylsulfonylmethane, a substance commonly used to dilute methamphetamine, at multiple stash houses tied to the organization, including the Stone Mountain location.
Investigators determined that two undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Jonathan Guzman Esquivel, 34, and Alfonso Calderon-Rodriguez, 30, were living inside the home and actively trafficking drugs from the property. Prosecutors described the residence as sparsely furnished and coated in charcoal dust. Marroquin admitted she allowed the men to stay in the house and provided them with money for living expenses to support the trafficking operation.
Both Esquivel and Calderon-Rodriguez pleaded guilty in federal court to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances. Each was sentenced in the fall of 2024 to five years and 10 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Marroquin pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute more than 760 pounds of methamphetamine and harboring undocumented immigrants to facilitate drug trafficking. She is scheduled to be sentenced on April 23.
“As a result of unwavering law enforcement dedication, this insidious trafficking network has been dismantled, and well over a million dollars’ worth of lethal drugs have been removed from our streets,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said. “The Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners will continue to protect the public by ensuring north Georgia is never a haven for criminal cartels.”
The case was investigated by the DEA and the U.S. Marshals Service, with assistance from the DeKalb County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area unit and the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office.