SAN JOSE — Maybe Jesus Salamanca-Benitez should have stayed at the Panda Express assembly line. Court records say he was arrested in 2022, after coming into the United States through Southern California, then brought to San Jose to face federal charges. He pleaded guilty to a federal methamphetamine trafficking offense earlier this year. Prosecutors painted Salamanca-Benitez, 31, as a well-connected drug dealer who had worked for an organization tied to the Nueva Plaza Cartel. He has a previous conviction in Washington, stemming from “very similar” allegations, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.