Anchorage, Alaska – United States Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that an Anchorage man was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage, to 24 months in prison for his conviction on one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

On June 9, 2011, Eduardo Pena de Jesus, 30, of Anchorage, was sentenced by United States District Judge Timothy M. Burgess. The defendant pled guilty to the charge on January 21, 2011.

On March 16, 2011, Pena also pled guilty to a separate charge of making a false statement in an application for a U.S. passport and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. The prison terms will be served concurrently. However, these two sentences will be served consecutive to the other previously imposed prison terms for violation of supervised release and assault.

The defendant was convicted of conspiring with co-defendant Nayade R. Perez to distribute powder cocaine in Anchorage in early 2007. At the time of the offenses alleged in the indictment, the defendant was on supervised release after having served a five-year federal prison term for cocaine conspiracy imposed in 2001. In March 2009, the defendant was arrested by Anchorage police in connection with an investigation into a stabbing at Club Soraya. Co-defendant Nayade Perez was also arrested and charged in that crime. Pena de Jesus pled guilty to assault in the third degree in Alaska Superior Court and was sentenced to six years in prison, with two suspended. He was subsequently sentenced to serve another year in prison for violation of release terms on his 2001 drug conviction by Senior United States District Judge James K. Singleton in October 2010.

Through most of his criminal career, including his prior state and federal felony convictions, the defendant used the name Peter Noel Santos-Hernandez. In late 2010, a fingerprint check revealed that another individual using the same name and identifying information had recently been arrested in Puerto Rico. Investigation revealed that the defendant had unlawfully assumed the identity of the man in Puerto Rico. The defendant subsequently admitted his true identity, and that he was an illegal alien from the Dominican Republic rather than a U.S. Citizen from Puerto Rico. He was charged with passport fraud for false statements made on a 2007 passport application.

In imposing the sentences, the court took into account the fact that the defendant is certain to be deported after he serves the prison terms, and will be unable to lawfully reenter the U.S. at any time in the future under current law. If he did so, the defendant would be subject to up to 20 years in prison for unlawfully reentering the U.S. after being deported, due to his three aggravated felony convictions. In addition, the defendant was warned that if he were again convicted of a serious federal drug crime, he would be subject to a mandatory sentence of life in prison under the federal “three strikes” law.

The drug conspiracy was investigated by the Anchorage Police Department. The passport fraud was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service.

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