Drug Trafficker Sentenced 17.5 Years In Prison

Trafficker’s Wife Receives A Two And A Half Year Sentence For Laundering Drug Proceeds

STATESVILLE, N.C. – Manuel Ocampo, Jr., 39, of Anaheim, Calif., was sentenced today to 210 months in prison for his role as a supplier of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, marijuana and other narcotics, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Richard L. Voorhees ordered Ocampo to serve five years of supervised release. Judge Voorhees also sentenced today Manuel Ocampo’s wife, Yulisma Ocampo, 37, to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release, for conspiring to launder the proceeds of drug trafficking.

U.S. Attorney Tompkins is joined in making today’s announcement by Brock D. Nicholson, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Georgia and the Carolinas; Greg McLeod, Director of the State Bureau of Investigation (NC SBI); Chief Tom Adkins of the Hickory Police Department and Sheriff Coy Reid of the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office.

According to court documents and proceedings, the drug conspiracy lasted from 2011 to September 18, 2012. During that time, the Ocampos travelled from California to the Hickory, N.C. area to deliver a variety of narcotics, including methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, among others. On May 4, 2012, law enforcement in Hickory N.C. seized over four pounds of 97% pure methamphetamine, more than one and half pounds of black tar heroin and over two pounds of powder heroin from a hidden compartment in the roof of the Ocampos’ minivan. During Manuel Ocampo’s arrest on that date, Yulisma Ocampo hid her husband’s cell phone and she subsequently picked-up drug proceeds from customers, until she was arrested in July 2012.

Two other conspirators involved in the drug scheme, Joey Carroll and Peter Anthony Sanders, were previously sentenced. Carroll was sentenced to 113 months in prison and five years of supervised release. Sanders was sentenced to 36 months in prison and four years of supervised release.

Both Manuel and Yulisma Ocampo will remain in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

This investigation into the case was led by HSI and SBI, with the assistance of several other law enforcement agencies, to include the Hickory Police Department and the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office. The prosecution for the government is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven R. Kaufman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.