LEXINGTON, Ky. — Two separate federal drug prosecutions in the Eastern District of Kentucky moved toward guilty pleas this week, and newly filed plea papers spell out how agents say each case unfolded — from a 28-kilogram cocaine load steered to a Lexington garage to a Georgetown house where police reported finding more than $251,000 in cash and bags of “M30” fentanyl pills.
In the cocaine case, Isaias Santos-Trujillo filed a plea agreement Monday in a conspiracy charge that carries a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence, according to the document filed in U.S. District Court. The statement of facts says the case began Feb. 11, 2025, when Arkansas State Police stopped a northbound vehicle on I-40 and found about 28 kilograms of suspected cocaine hidden in an aftermarket compartment. After field tests were positive, agents arranged a controlled delivery to Lexington, replacing the load with look-alike packages, the filing says.
Surveillance teams watched a man later identified as Santos-Trujillo meet the vehicle and drive it to a residence on Broadview Drive, where he pulled it into a detached garage, according to the plea document. DEA agents, Kentucky State Police and Lexington police then moved in and detained him without incident. Investigators later reported that Santos-Trujillo had recently arrived from Mexico, had agreed with another person to accept cocaine shipments, and had phone messages with instructions on how to open the hidden compartment, the filing states. Kentucky State Police lab testing later confirmed cocaine consistent with distribution, in an approximate weight of 28 kilograms. The plea document lists the statutory penalty as at least 10 years in prison, a fine up to $10 million and at least 10 years of supervised release.
In a separate case, co-defendant Taylor Lee Burden filed a plea agreement Friday in a fentanyl-meth conspiracy first charged by a federal grand jury Aug. 7 alongside Mabel Francis Soto. Burden’s plea papers say Georgetown police were investigating Soto and her associates for drug trafficking from her Payne Street residence in fall 2022. On Oct. 18, 2022, officers conducting surveillance saw suspected hand-to-hand transactions, stopped vehicles that had visited the house, and the occupants admitted buying drugs there, according to the filing.
A state search warrant turned up “well over” 100 grams of fentanyl pills in a front bedroom along with a distribution quantity of methamphetamine, a handgun, and “more than $251,100 in drug proceeds” in the same bedroom where most of the drugs were found, the plea document says. Soto “admitted that she knew” Burden would sell drugs and allowed him to stay there to do so, according to the statement of facts. Burden, the document says, agreed to sell fentanyl for Soto, was paid with drugs to support his addiction, obtained fentanyl from Soto to sell to others, and returned the proceeds to her. Lab tests later confirmed 13.3 grams of methamphetamine and about 131 grams of fentanyl pills marked “M 30,” amounts “consistent with distribution,” the filing states. For the conspiracy count, the document lists a penalty range of five to 40 years in prison, up to a $5 million fine and a term of supervised release.
Both cases are before U.S. District Judge Gregory F. VanTatenhove. In the Santos-Trujillo matter (5:25-cr-25), defense attorney John Edward Reynolds moved Monday for a rearraignment — the hearing where a defendant changes a not-guilty plea to guilty — after earlier trial dates were continued. In the Soto case (5:25-cr-101), Burden’s counsel filed a similar motion Friday; Soto remains set for a Dec. 2 jury trial unless she also reaches a deal. Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger West is prosecuting both cases.
Sentencing dates will be set after the court accepts the pleas and orders presentence investigations.