Lincoln Man Sentenced for Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine

Acting United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Jesse Cervantes, Jr., 52, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was sentenced on November 20, 2023, in federal court in Lincoln for possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of actual (pure) methamphetamine. Senior United States District Court Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Cervantes to 120 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After Cervantes’s release from prison, he will begin a 5-year term of supervised release.

In March and May of 2022, an undercover investigator made a total of eight purchases of meth, totaling approximately nine ounces, from Cervantes in Lincoln.  On May 19, 2022, investigators served a search warrant on Cervantes’s Lincoln residence and vehicle.  In the vehicle, they found two bags of meth weighing a total of just under one pound.  One of the two bags, weighing 224 grams, was tested by the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Laboratory for purity, and was found to be 100% pure.

Cervantes agreed to talk to law enforcement officers and said he obtained about 100 pounds of meth from a source in Omaha in about March of 2022.  He got five pounds from a second source in Omaha.  He said he had about five customers who were buying pound or multiple-pound quantities of meth.  He also sold smaller amounts to a few people.  Cervantes said the meth found in his vehicle belonged to him.

This case was investigated by the Lincoln/Lancaster County Drug Task Force.