Eight Co-Conspirators Sentenced to Federal Prison Earlier

BOISE – Juan Carlos Morales-Cardenas, 39, of San Bernardino, California, was sentenced today to 97 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered Morales-Cardenas to serve five years of supervised release following his prison term. He pleaded guilty to the charge on January 24, 2012.

According to court documents, Morales-Cardenas was involved in a conspiracy with others to distribute over 500 grams of methamphetamine in Idaho. Morales-Cardenas admitted that he supplied methamphetamine to persons who subsequently brought the methamphetamine to Idaho. He also traveled to Idaho to meet with his co-conspirators, during which time he sold methamphetamine to them.

To date, eight co-conspirators have been sentenced to federal prison on related drug trafficking charges:

• Juan Salto-Vivanco, Caldwell, Idaho, 108 months
• Juan Ramirez-Bolanos, Caldwell, 115 months
• Eugenio Arrela-Villa, Caldwell, Idaho, 70 months
• Noel Salto-Vivanco, Caldwell, 87 months
• Fernando Luna-Rodriguez, El Sinore, California, 30 months
• Ricardo Payan-Beltran, Mexican national, 30 months
• Jose Cirilo-Duran, Weiser, Idaho, 27 months
• Francisca Salto-Flores, Caldwell, 13 months

The case was the result of a joint investigation of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), led by the Drug Enforcement Administration in conjunction with the Nampa Police Department.

The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.