Hobbs Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Methamphetamine Trafficking Charge

ALBUQUERQUE – Arturo Dominguez Morales, 44, of Hobbs, N.M., pled guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to a methamphetamine trafficking charge.

Morales was arrested on June 30, 2015, on a criminal complaint charging him with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, according to the complaint, on June 28, 2015, in Lea County, N.M., after agents of the Lea County Drug Task Force (LCDTF) seized approximately 233.6 grams of methamphetamine from Morales’s vehicle.

During today’s proceedings, Morales pled guilty to a felony information charging him with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.  Morales admitted that on June 28, 2015, LCDTF agents found 232 grams of methamphetamine in his vehicle at the Econo Lodge Motel in Hobbs, where Morales was delivering the methamphetamine to another individual.

At sentencing, Morales faces a statutory minimum of five years in federal prison and a maximum of 40 years followed by not less than four years of supervised release.  Morales has been in custody since his arrest and remains detained pending a sentencing hearing which has yet to be scheduled.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the DEA and the Lea County Drug Task Force.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Terri J. Abernathy of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office is prosecuting the case.

The Lea County Drug Task Force is comprised of officers from the Lea County Sheriff’s Office, Hobbs Police Department, Lovington Police Department, Eunice Police Department the Tatum Police Department and the Jal Police Department, and is part of the NM 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.