Mexican national pleads guilty to trafficking methamphetamine in NM
Plea agreement requires 9-year prison sentence, followed by deportation
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An illegal alien from Mexico pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to selling methamphetamine to an undercover agent.
This case was investigated by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Pricilio Garcia-Jimenez, 40, a Mexican national who lived in Farmington, N.M., will be sentenced to nine years in federal prison under the terms of his plea agreement. He was in the United States without authorization at the time of his arrest. After he completes his prison sentence, he will be turned over to ICE custody and placed in removal proceedings.
Garcia-Jimenez was arrested May 22, 2012 on a criminal complaint alleging he sold methamphetamine to an undercover officer in April 2012, in San Juan County, N.M. He has been in custody since that time. In July 2012, he was indicted and charged with distributing methamphetamine in San Juan County five different times between November 2011 and April 2012.
During the hearing Aug. 28, Garcia-Jimenez pleaded guilty to four of the five counts in the indictment, and an Information charging him with distributing methamphetamine. He also admitted distributing methamphetamine for profit in San Juan County. In his plea agreement, Garcia-Jimenez admitted distributing methamphetamine to an undercover officer on five separate occasions between November 2011 and April 2012. He further admitted distributing methamphetamine to others on four occasions between September 2011 and November 2011.
Garcia-Jimenez remains in federal custody pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled.
The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Region II Narcotics Task Force assisted in this investigation. This task force is composed of the following New Mexico law enforcement agencies: San Juan County Sheriff's Office, and the police departments of Aztec, Bloomfield and Farmington. HIDTA is a program of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), which provides assistance to federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug-trafficking regions of the United States. HIDTA seeks to reduce drug trafficking and production by facilitating coordinated law enforcement activities and information sharing.
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