A Waterloo man who was part of a drug ring tied to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico has been sentenced to more than 26 years in prison, according to the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. 38 year old Jesse “Red” Lax met a man with the Sinaloa Cartel while in prison in Colorado. The two struck a deal where Lax and his then girlfriend would move to Waterloo where they would distribute heroin, cocaine, and meth for the cartel. Lax would travel to other cities to collect large quantities of the drugs and bring them back to Waterloo. In January of 2020, Lax shot a man in the neck in a dispute over meth. He was arrested for that crime. At that point his girlfriend, Sandra Deyerle, took over his role. She was arrested in October of 2020. She was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance and Possession of a Firearm in Connection with a Drug Trafficking Crime.
