FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	April 30, 2012
Docket #: 1:11-cr-0092 LJO

FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill sentenced Jose Rosas-Figueroa, 42, of Goshen, today to three years and 10 months in prison for conspiring to grow, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute marijuana.

According to court documents, Rosas-Figueroa acknowledged that in 2010 and 2011 he conspired with his roommate and co-defendant Adrian Rosales-Fuentes, 29, to cultivate and distribute marijuana. Rosas-Figueroa admitted that during the conspiracy he was directly involved in growing marijuana with about 17 other people in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Temecula in Riverside County. DEA agents connected Rosas-Figueroa to the grow site through geographic location information obtained from his phone. As a result of the information, law enforcement officers were able to eradicate 11,715 marijuana plants from public land. Rosas-Figueroa is subject to deportation to Mexico upon completion of his sentence.

Rosales-Fuentes has pleaded guilty and is scheduled for sentencing before Judge O’Neill on May 7, 2012.

This case is the product of an Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation conducted by the DEA with assistance from the U.S. Forest Service and King’s County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with Operation Trident. Operation Trident was a multi-agency marijuana enforcement effort conducted in Madera, Fresno, and Tulare Counties in 2009 and 2010. To date, 77 federal defendants have been convicted as a result of Operation Trident, which eradicated approximately 663,898 marijuana plants primarily from public lands in the Sierra Nevada mountains and foothills in the Eastern District of California. Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen A. Escobar is prosecuting the case.

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