Colorado Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Meth Trafficking Charges in New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE – Saul Cerros, 36, of Northglenn, Colo., pled guilty yesterday in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to methamphetamine trafficking charges. The guilty plea was entered under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Cerros was arrested on Sept. 28, 2016, on a four-count indictment charging him with methamphetamine trafficking charges. Count 1 charged Cerros with conspiring to distribute methamphetamine in March 2015. The indictment also charged Cerros with distributing methamphetamine twice on March 27, 2015, and again on March 31, 2015. According to the indictment, Cerros committed the offenses in Dona Ana County, N.M.

During yesterday’s proceedings, Cerros pled guilty to the indictment. In entering the guilty plea, Cerros admitted selling an aggregate of 891.56 grams of pure methamphetamine to undercover law enforcement agents on three separate occasions; twice on March 27, 2015, and a third time on March 31, 2015. Cerros further admitted that he personally smuggled the methamphetamine involved in one of the drug deals into the United States from Mexico.

At sentencing, Cerros faces a statutory mandatory minimum penalty of ten years to a maximum of life in federal prison. Cerros remains in custody pending a sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the FBI and the HIDTA Regional Interagency Drug Task Force/Metro Narcotics Task Force and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Segovia of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.

The HIDTA Regional Interagency Drug Task Force/Metro Narcotics Task Force is comprised of officers from the Las Cruces Police Department, the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, HSI and the New Mexico State Police. 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.