Artesia Man Sentenced to Five Years for Federal Methamphetamine Trafficking Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE – Londie Tarango, 23, of Artesia, N.M., was sentenced this morning in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to 60 months in prison for his methamphetamine trafficking conviction. Tarango will be on supervised release for three years after completing his prison sentence.

Tarango was arrested on Oct. 6, 2015, on an indictment charging him with distributing methamphetamine on Aug. 1, 2014, in Eddy County, N.M. The indictment included forfeiture allegations seeking forfeiture of $2,400 in proceeds of the drug trafficking activity charged to the United States. On May 5, 2016, Tarango pled guilty to the indictment without the benefit of a plea agreement.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the DEA and the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brock Taylor of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office prosecuted the case.

The Pecos Valley Drug Task Force is comprised of officers from the Eddy County Sheriff’s Office, Carlsbad Police Department and Artesia Police Department and is part of the HIDTA Region VI Drug Task Force. The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program was created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. HIDTA is a program of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) which provides assistance to federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug-trafficking regions of the United States and seeks to reduce drug trafficking and production by facilitating coordinated law enforcement activities and information sharing.