Debra Wong Yang
United States Attorney
Central District of California
United States Courthouse
312 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
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March 28, 2006
Thom Mrozek (213) 894-6947
Los Angeles, CA - A man who led police on a high-speed televised chase – which ended with him dumping what is believed to be drugs into a pond in a park – has been sentenced to188 months in federal prison for distributing methamphetamine.
Edwin Mejia, 31, of Canyon Country, was sentenced Monday afternoon by United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson. Mejia was convicted at trial last September of two counts of distributing methamphetamine and one count of possessing with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.
During the course of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mejia agreed to sell 25 pounds of methamphetamine to a confidential informant. On October 27, 2004, after he had already sold one pound and agreed to sell two additional pounds of the drug, Mejia led Los Angeles Police Department officers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents on a high-speed chase through the streets of San Fernando Valley. According to video footage from a news helicopter that was shown to the jury at trial, Mejia drove his pick-up truck onto the middle of a baseball field in Reseda Park, jumped out of his vehicle and ran towards a pond holding a bag of what appeared to be methamphetamine in each hand. Mejia jumped into the pond and disbursed the contents of the bags before surrendering to law enforcement authorities. Investigators subsequently recovered 35 grams of methamphetamine from the floor of Mejia's truck.
This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Release No. 06-038
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