FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

WEDNESDAY - February 15, 2012

LEADER IN DRUG RING IN ROBESON COUNTY SENTENCED

RALEIGH - United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court yesterday United States District Judge Terrence W. Boyle sentenced JACINTO CARRANZA CIRIACO, 34, to 240 months imprisonment.

A Superseding Criminal Information was filed on August 3, 2011, charging CIRIACO with conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1) and 846. That same day he pled guilty to the charge.

The investigation revealed that CIRIACO was responsible for the trafficking more than 890 kilograms of powder cocaine between late 2008 and May, 2011. On April 18, 2009, CIRIACO arranged to have 12 kilograms delivered by a co-conspirator to a parking lot in Lumberton, North Carolina. That person was arrested by members of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and local law enforcement and the cocaine was recovered. CIRIACO was not apprehended at that time. On May 8, 2011, agents from DEA searched several residences associated with CIRIACO. Law enforcement recovered approximately 28 kilograms of cocaine and $450,000 in United States currency.

This case was brought as a part of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operations entitled Broken Glass and Big Worm, both investigating importers and multi-level distributors of cocaine and crack cocaine into Southeastern North Carolina.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration; the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Wilmington Police Department, the Fayetteville and Leland Police Departments, and the Cumberland, Pender, and Sampson County Sheriffs’ Offices. Special Assistant United States Attorney Timothy Severo represents the government. Mr. Severo is a prosecutor with the New Hanover District Attorney’s Office. District Attorney Ben David has assigned him to the United States Attorney’s Office to prosecute federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force criminal matters. This has been made possible by a grant funded by the Governor’s Crime Commission and the New Hanover County Commissioners.