FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
October 28, 2011	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 1:10-cr-339-LJO

FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that today United States District Judge Lawrence J. O'Neill sentenced Noe Ceballos-Alvarez, 22, of Madera, to two years in prison for conspiring to cultivate marijuana.

In his guilty plea, Ceballos-Alvarez admitted that on July 8, 2010 he knowingly drove other conspirators to a remote site where they tended approximately 3,710 marijuana plants. According to court documents, that cultivation site was on federal land in the Sierra mountains north of Fresno.

Co-conspirator Juan Chavez Martinez pleaded guilty in July 2011 and is scheduled to be sentenced on November 4, 2011. Co-conspirator Ediberto Alvarez-Ceballos pleaded guilty in June 2011 and was sentenced in September 2011 to two years in prison.

This is the latest conviction stemming from Operation Trident, a multi-agency marijuana enforcement effort in Madera, Fresno, and Tulare Counties in 2009 and 2010 that was coordinated by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Operation Trident resulted in the eradication of approximately 663,898 marijuana plants, primarily from public lands in the Sierra foothills and mountains, and the federal prosecution of 88 individuals. Assistant United States Attorney Kevin Rooney prosecuted this case.

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