POCATELLO – Cesar Urrea-Navarrete, 34, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court to possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of actual methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.

According to the plea agreement, on various dates, Urrea-Navarrete sold methamphetamine to law enforcement officers or individuals working with law enforcement. Urrea-Navarrete admitted that on July 7, 2011, he sold 55.10 grams of actual methamphetamine at a Boise area restaurant to a law enforcement officer in exchange for $2,400. Urrea-Navarrete admitted that he knew the substance he sold was methamphetamine.

The charge is punishable by a minimum term of ten years up to life in prison, a maximum fine of $10 million, and at least five years of supervised release.

Urrea-Navarrete is scheduled to be sentenced on March 4, 2013, by Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Pocatello.

Co-defendant Ruben Moreno Sanchez, of Boise, Idaho, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of actual methamphetamine. He was sentenced in September 2012 to 151 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release.

The indictment was the result of a joint investigation of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, in conjunction with Idaho State Police and Boise Police Department. Other federal agencies participating in the OCDETF program include the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, and U.S. Marshals Service.

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.