2 men from Mexico, West Texas sentenced to lengthy prison terms for narcotics trafficking

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Mexican national and a West Texas man were sentenced Thursday to lengthy federal prison terms for narcotics trafficking.

Special agents assigned to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated this case.

Luis Juan Contreras-Cano, 20, a Mexican national who resides in Albuquerque, was sentenced to eight years in prison. Carlos Davenport, 41, of El Paso, Texas, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.  Contreras-Cano will be placed in removal proceedings after he completes his sentence. Davenport’s prison sentence will be followed by five years of supervised release.

The two men were arrested Dec. 13, 2014, in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, after law enforcement officers, acting on a criminal complaint, searched the vehicle in which the two men were traveling and found 10 pounds of methamphetamine and two firearms.

Contreras-Cano and Davenport were subsequently indicted Jan. 8, and charged with the following crimes:  conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with intent to distribute, possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute, and using and carrying firearms in relation to a drug trafficking crime.  All these offenses took place in Bernalillo County.

On June 24, Contreras-Cano pleaded to a felony information charging him with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.  In entering his guilty plea, Contreras-Cano admitted that while driving through Bernalillo County on Dec. 13, 2014, he and Davenport were stopped by Albuquerque police officers who found 10 pounds of methamphetamine, two firearms and ammunition during a search of their vehicle. Contreras-Cano further admitted that he and Davenport had acquired the methamphetamine in Phoenix and were planning to redistribute it.

On June 17, Davenport pleaded to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and using and carrying a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

The Albuquerque Police Department and the FBI assisted HSI with the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys James R.W. Braun and Joel R. Meyers prosecuted this case.