Deming Man Sentenced to Five Years for Federal Methamphetamine Trafficking Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE – Anthony Perez, 41, of Deming, N.M., was sentenced this morning in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to 60months in prison followed by four years of supervised release for his methamphetamine trafficking conviction.

Perez was arrested on Feb. 20, 2014, on a two-count indictment charging him and co-defendants Rebecca Torres, 41, Matthew Peña, 30, both of Deming, N.M., and Robert Snow, now deceased, with distributing methamphetamine.  Count 1 of the indictment charged Peña and Torres with distributing methamphetamine in Doña Ana County, N.M., on June 18, 2013, and Count 2 charged Peña, Snow and Perez with distribution of methamphetamine in Luna County, N.M., on July 3, 2013.

Perez and Peña both pled guilty to the indictment on May 14, 2014, without the benefit of plea agreements.  Peña was sentenced on March 3, 2015, to 120 months in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release.  Torres entered a guilty plea on April 18, 2014, and was sentenced on Aug. 28, 2014, to 10 months in federal prison.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the FBI and the New Mexico HIDTA Regional Interagency Drug Task Force (RIDTF)/Metro Narcotics Task Force.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maria Y. Armijo and Anna R. Wright of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office prosecuted the case.

The HIDTA Metro Narcotics Task Force is comprised of officers from the Las Cruces Police Department and the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office.  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.