MAY 18 -- LOUISVILLE, KY - Acting United States Attorney Candace G. Hill of the Western District of Kentucky announced today that Jose Pizarro, age 37 of Louisville, Kentucky, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, for possessing over 50 grams of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Jennifer B. Coffman also sentenced Pizarro to 5 years supervised release following imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal judicial system.

Pizarro previously pled guilty to possessing the methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it. During his guilty plea, Pizarro admitted that on August 9, 2008, he drove from his residence in Jefferson County, Kentucky, to a residence in Bullitt County to deliver a pound of methamphetamine powder. Detectives from the Bullitt County Drug Task Force arrested Pizarro after he arrived at the Bullitt County residence with the pound of methamphetamine. After he was arrested, Pizarro consented to a search of his residence in Jefferson County, where another pound of methamphetamine, $4,550 in United States Currency, and 43 firearms were discovered.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas W. Dyke, and it was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bullitt County Drug Task Force and the Meade County Drug Task Force.