FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
July 25, 2011	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 1:10-CR-384-AWI

FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that today United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii sentenced Juvenal Paredes Sanchez, 36, of Merced County, to four years in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release, for using a cellular phone in furtherance of a marijuana cultivation and distribution conspiracy.

According to court documents, at the time of his arrest on August 28, 2010, Sanchez was living on a farm in Merced County that was being used to cultivate approximately 48,000 marijuana plants under the guise of corn cultivation. On April 11, 2011, Sanchez admitted that he used a cellular telephone in furtherance of that large marijuana distribution conspiracy involving the seized plants.

Given the large scale conspiracy and the sheer quantity of marijuana involved, Sanchez was sentenced to the maximum term for his crime.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Merced Mariposa High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, composed of members of the Merced County Sheriff's Office, Mariposa County Sheriff's Office, California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, California State Parole, and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Assistant United States Attorneys Yasin Mohammad and Kathleen A. Servatius prosecuted the case

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