Mexican National Sentenced To 148 Months For Distributing Meth

Seven Co-Defendants Sentenced Earlier in Treasure Valley Drug Conspiracy

BOISE – Nelson Fernando Garcia-Soto, 39, a Mexican national formerly living in Boise, Idaho, was sentenced today to 148 months in prison for possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of actual methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also ordered Garcia-Soto to serve five years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty to the charge on November 13, 2012.

According to the plea agreement, on December 16, 2011, law enforcement officers recovered nine pounds of methamphetamine from a backpack in a vehicle Garcia-Soto was driving. Garcia-Soto subsequently admitted that earlier that evening he had distributed two pounds of methamphetamine to co-defendant Alfredo Dominguez-Villareal.

Seven co-defendants sentenced earlier include Alfredo Dominguez-Villareal, a/k/a Alfredo Vasquez-Dominguez, a Mexican national, to 150 months in prison; Jimenez Valencia a/k/a Jorge Jimenez, a Mexican national, to 57 months; Juan Carlos Arredondo-Sicairos a/k/a Victor Kalil Medina-Feliciano, a Mexican national, to 120 months; Delia Garcia-Pineda, a Mexican national, to 37 months; Tanna Spencer, of Parma, Idaho, to 15 months; Hector Morales, of Delano, California, to six months; and Cynthia Casillas, also of Delano, to three years’ probation.

Two remaining defendants, Alonso Martinez, 26, of Earlimart, California, and Samuel Chavez, 32, of New Meadows, Idaho, are scheduled to be sentenced on June 4 and June 24, respectively.

The case was the result of a joint investigation of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), led by the Drug Enforcement Administration in conjunction with the Boise Police Department, Nampa Police Department, and the Ada County Sheriff's Office.

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. Federal task force members include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and U.S. Marshals Service.