East Texas man sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for illegal marijuana cultivation operation

TYLER, Texas — An East Texas man was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in federal prison for drug trafficking.

This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Joseph D. Brown, Eastern District of Texas.

This case was investigated by the following agencies: Texas Department of Public Safety’s Criminal Investigations Division; Texas Department of Public Safety’s Highway Patrol; Drug Enforcement Administration; Smith County (Texas) Sheriff's Office; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Forest Service; U.S. Army National Guard; Texas Parks and Wildlife; the Texas sheriffs’ offices of Anderson, Harrison, Henderson, Houston, Morris, Sabine and Upshur counties; and Gilmer and Longview (Texas) police departments.

Eduardo Pineda, 26, from Tyler, Texas, pleaded guilty July 25, 2019, to manufacturing and possessing with intent to manufacture and distribute marijuana; he was sentenced Nov. 12 to 108 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle.

According to information presented in court, in 2016, Pineda supervised a large-scale marijuana cultivation enterprise throughout the Eastern District of Texas, including sites located on public lands, such as Davy Crockett and Sabine National Forests. Other sites were located on private property where Pineda and others trespassed without the knowledge or consent of the landowners. In total, Pineda and his co-conspirators cultivated thousands of marijuana plants.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathaniel C. Kummerfeld, Lucas Machicek, and Ryan Locker.