Seven co-defendants will be sentenced in June and July

BOISE – Fabian Nunez-Garcia, 51, a Mexican national, pled guilty today to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Sentencing is set for August 20, 2012, before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge at the federal courthouse in Boise.

Seven co-defendants have pled guilty to related drug trafficking charges: Jose Ramon Escobedo-Gonzalez, Jorge Luis Cardoza-Sobrino, Ronald Garcia, Juventino Lara-Plancarte, Antony Alegria Zedeno, Randi Leann Atkisson, and Lourdes Muro-Garcia are scheduled to be sentenced in June and July.

A jury trial for co-defendants Victor Chavez-Garcia and Benjamin Prieto, both of Nampa, is set for July 10, 2012, before Judge Lodge.

The defendants are charged with conspiring to distribute methamphetamine in the Treasure Valley. According to plea agreements, the conspiracy began in September 2009 and continued to mid-January 2011. The organization brought pounds of methamphetamine into Idaho from surroundings states and distributed it throughout the Treasure Valley. During the investigation, law enforcement officers seized five pounds of methamphetamine, marijuana, numerous firearms, vehicles, and more than $30,000 in currency. The United States is seeking forfeiture.

The charge of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine carries a mandatory minimum term of ten years up to life in prison, a maximum fine of $10 million, and a term of five years of supervised release. The charge of using a communication device in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime is punishable by up to four years in prison, a term of supervised release of not more than three years, and a maximum fine of $250,000.

The indictment was the result of a year-long Organized Crime/Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation named “Operation Flame Thrower.” 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. Investigators and prosecutors from ten federal, state, and local agencies cooperated in the arrests and seizures, including Nampa Police Department, Drug Enforcement Administration, Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, Caldwell Police Department, Canyon County Prosecutor’s Office and the United States Attorney’s Office.