COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Las Vegas woman who mailed methamphetamine packages from Las Vegas to central Ohio was sentenced on Tuesday, October 27, in US District Court in Columbus to 188 months in federal prison — 15 years and 8 months — the US Department of Justice said. The government seized approximately 83 pounds of methamphetamine in the case.
Source: US Department of Justice, Southern District of Ohio
Tiauna Castro, 36, of Las Vegas, Nevada, was sentenced by US District Court Judge Michael H. Watson. The sentence was announced by Dominick S. Gerace II, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Lesley Allison, Inspector in Charge of the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS). Assistant US Attorneys Timothy D. Prichard and Emily Czerniejewski represented the United States in the case.
How the mailing ring worked
According to court documents cited by prosecutors, Castro was the shipping end of a supply line that moved methamphetamine from California and Las Vegas into central Ohio through the US Mail. As part of the conspiracy, she met with bulk narcotics distributors and negotiated prices with the suppliers. She then bought bulk amounts of narcotics, stored them, repackaged them for shipping and sent them out through the mail to Columbus.
The charges grew out of a 2021 investigation by the US Postal Inspection Service and the Central Ohio High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force. Investigators identified at least 128 mail parcels believed to contain methamphetamine. In April 2022, Castro and seven co-defendants were indicted for the drug conspiracy in federal court.
A second crime while the first case was still pending
While the drug case was pending, Castro committed a second, separate fraud. Prosecutors said she filed false federal tax forms related to two sham businesses and received more than $500,000 in tax refunds to which she was not entitled. She was charged with the tax fraud in January 2025, while she was on pretrial release for the drug charges.
The Justice Department had already laid out that sequence in an earlier tax-enforcement announcement from the same US Attorney's office, which reported that Castro pleaded guilty in March 2026 to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and to submitting false claims, and that she was awaiting sentencing. Tuesday's hearing in Columbus closed that wait with the 188-month term.
Source: US Department of Justice, Southern District of Ohio (earlier tax-enforcement announcement)
This supply line did not move in trucks on the interstates. Prosecutors say it moved in ordinary mail parcels — at least 128 of them — which is why the lead investigators were postal inspectors rather than highway patrol. The Postal Inspection Service is the federal agency that investigates crimes carried through the US Mail.
Background: the route from the desert Southwest to central Ohio
Columbus, the Ohio state capital, sits at the crossing of Interstates 70 and 71 and is one of the Midwest's largest logistics hubs — a reason central Ohio appears again and again in federal drug cases, whether the drugs arrive by road or, as here, by parcel. The HIDTA programme, which joined the investigation, is a federal programme that funds joint task forces in areas designated as major drug-trafficking corridors.
For residents of central Ohio, the practical meaning of the sentence is narrower and concrete: one bulk supplier who, according to prosecutors, personally negotiated with distributors, held the stock and ran the shipping has been removed from that supply line for more than 15 years, and the 83 pounds seized in the case will not reach the street.
What happens next
Castro now begins serving the 188-month sentence imposed by Judge Watson. Because she pleaded guilty in March 2026, there is no trial ahead in her case. The Justice Department announcement did not state the current status of the seven co-defendants indicted with her in April 2022, and it announced no further hearings in her case.