Press Release
Deming Man Sentenced to Ten Years for Federal Methamphetamine Trafficking Conviction
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE – Matthew Peña, 29, of Deming, N.M., was sentenced this morning in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to ten years in prison followed by four years of supervised release for his methamphetamine trafficking conviction.
Peña was arrested on Jan. 27, 2014, in Deming, N.M., on a two-count indictment charging him and co-defendants Rebecca Torres, 41, Anthony Perez, 40, 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.
Peña and Perez both pled guilty to the indictment on May 14, 2014, without the benefit of plea agreements. Torres entered a guilty plea on April 18, 2014, and was sentenced on Aug. 28, 2014, to 10 months in federal prison. Perez remains detained pending his sentencing hearing which has yet to be scheduled.
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.
Updated March 3, 2015
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