Conway Man Sentenced In Federal Court for Drug Charges

Columbia, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Beth Drake stated today that Artemio Bustos Solano, age 35, of Conway, SC, was sentenced in federal court in Florence, South Carolina, for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, a violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846.  United States District Judge Bryan Harwell, of Florence, sentenced Solano to 48 months’ imprisonment followed by 3 years of supervised release,   

Evidence presented at the guilty plea hearing established that in the later part of 2010, agents learned from a confidential informant that Solano and a codefendant, who previously pled guilty and has been sentenced, were involved in the distribution of multiple kilograms of cocaine in the Horry County area.  The informant was able to approach Solano and the codefendant and arrange for the controlled purchase of two kilograms of cocaine from them.  Solano negotiated the details of the deal which was to take place on April 8, 2011 in the parking lot of a grocery store in Conway.  On April 8 the informant brought the “buy money” to the grocery store parking lot and showed it to the codefendant who then left to retrieve the cocaine from Solano’s residence.  After the codefendant returned to the grocery store parking lot with the cocaine, agents arrested the codefendant and seized the two kilograms.  However, agents were not able to apprehend Solano at the scene.  In fact, he was not arrested until September 2017.            

The case was investigated by agents of ICE- Homeland Security Investigations with the assistance of the 15^th Circuit Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU).  Assistant United States Attorney A. Bradley Parham of the Florence office prosecuted the case.

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