News and Press Releases
Two men plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2012
MINNEAPOLIS—Today in federal court, a 40-year-old man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Alfredo Cazares-Medina, of Phoenix, Arizona, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. Yesterday, his co-defendant, Homero Urbina-Chavez, age 26, of Richfield, also pleaded guilty to the same charge. Cazares-Medina and Urbina-Chavez were indicted on April 16, 2012. They both entered their pleas before United States District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz.
In their plea agreements, Cazares-Medina and Urbina-Chavez admitted that between September 2009 and April 5, 2012, they conspired to obtain and distribute methamphetamine to various people in Minnesota. Urbina-Chavez admitted that on March 19, 2012, under the direction of Cazares-Medina, he met an undercover police officer at a carwash in Little Canada, Minnesota, where he sold the officer about one ounce of methamphetamine for $1,300.
According to a law enforcement affidavit filed in the case, authorities had been investigating Cazares-Medina for several months relative to shipments of methamphetamine from Arizona to Minnesota. During the course of that investigation, Cazares-Medina sold methamphetamine on several occasions to an undercover law enforcement agent. During some of those transactions, Urbina-Chavez was with Cazares-Medina. On April 5, 2012, police officers executed a search warrant at a “stash house” used by Cazares-Medina. Officers seized about nine ounces of methamphetamine at the “stash house” in Richfield, Minnesota.
For their crimes, the men face a potential maximum penalty of life in prison. Because the federal system does not have parole, the defendants will serve virtually their entire prison sentence behind bars. Judge Schiltz will determine their specific sentences at a future hearing, not yet scheduled.
This case is the result of an investigation by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas M. Hollenhorst.
