News and Press Releases
Three Shoreview residents indicted for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams of cocaine
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2012
MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court, three Shoreview residents were indicted
for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 500 or more grams of cocaine. Victor Manuel
Valens, age 61, Jose Eduardo Sanchez, age 56, and Lourdes Patricia Durkin, age 48, were
charged with one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. The
indictment alleges that from December 1 to December 9, 2011, the defendants conspired with
each other to possess with intent to distribute the cocaine.
According to a law enforcement affidavit filed in the case, authorities in Miami, Florida,
intercepted a package sent via courier from Lima, Peru, that contained 3.5 kilograms of cocaine.
During surveillance of the courier’s home-based business on December 5, a man, later
identified as Valens, allegedly arrived to pick up the package. He was arrested while attempting
to leave. Police subsequently learned that the package’s final destination was Sanchez and
Valens’s residence, and they had the package delivered there on December 9. Following
delivery, law enforcement executed a search warrant at the residence, where they reportedly
found the package in a locked bedroom, its contents, the cocaine, laid out around it. Inside the
residence, also found Sanchez and Durkin, who were immediately arrested.
If convicted, the defendants face a potential penalty of 40 years in prison. All sentences will
be determined by a federal district court judge. This case is the result of an investigation by the
United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the St. Paul Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. It is being
prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie E. Allyn.
An indictment is a determination by a grand jury that there is probable cause to believe that offenses have been committed by a defendant. A defendant, of course, is presumed innocent until he or she pleads guilty or is proven guilty at trial.
