FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
May 6, 2011	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 2:09-cr-00381-EJG

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today that Luciano Villanueva Mercado, 34, and his brother Sergio Mercado, 32, both of Concord, were sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Edward J. Garcia for possessing four pounds of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it, and conspiring to do the same. Luciano received a sentence of 14 years in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and Sergio was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

Luciano and Sergio Mercado pleaded guilty on August 6, 2010 and February 1, 2011, respectively. They were both charged in an indictment stemming from the seizure of high-grade methamphetamine near Lodi.

According to court documents, the Mercado brothers were distributing methamphetamine in California’s Central Valley. On July 20, 2009, they, and others, were arrested in the process of selling $68,000 worth of 86 percent-pure methamphetamine. Luciano Mercado was arrested with the methamphetamine at the scene of the sale. Sergio was arrested a few minutes later, after trying to flee in a truck down a nearby service road. He was arrested just south of the intersection of Interstate-5 and Highway 12.

In sentencing, Judge Garcia noted that Luciano had an apparent leadership role and that the Mercado brothers had connections to a methamphetamine supplier in Modesto.

This case was the product of an investigation by the San Joaquin County Metropolitan Narcotics Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Michael M. Beckwith prosecuted the case.

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