Three Plead Guilty To Meth Trafficking Charges

POCATELLO – Three co-defendants pleaded guilty this week to federal methamphetamine trafficking charges, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.

Jose Guadalupe Juarez, 33, of Rupert, Idaho, and Anthony Juarez, 30, of Nampa, Idaho, pleaded guilty on Monday in United States District Court to distribution of methamphetamine; Alexander Villasenor, 34, of Heyburn, Idaho, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. The defendants were indicted by a federal grand jury in Pocatello, Idaho, on August 28, 2013.

According to their plea agreements, Jose Guadalupe Juarez and Anthony Juarez admitted that on July 24, 2013, they assisted in the delivery of methamphetamine to an undercover officer in Burley, Idaho. Alexander Villasenor admitted that from December 2012 to May 2013, he received methamphetamine from several other individuals in Rupert and subsequently distributed it.

The defendants each face up to 20 years in prison, a maximum fine of $1 million, and at least three years of supervised release.

Jose Juarez and Anthony Juarez are scheduled to be sentenced on May 21, 2014, and Villasenor on June 17, by Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill.

Three co-defendants, Juan Ramon Yuen-Rodriguez, 29, and Jose Fabian Felix-Burgos, 41, both of Rupert, and Jesus Burgos, 62, of Lennox, California, are set for trial on May 19, 2014, on related drug charges.

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, U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Canyon County Narcotics Unit, Meridian Police Department, Ada County Sheriff’s Office, Idaho State Police, and the Mini-Cassia Drug Task Force. Other federal agencies participating in the OCDETF program include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 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.