Home Newark Press Releases 2009 Texas Woman Sentenced to 70 Months in Prison for Possessing 10 Kilograms of Cocaine at McGuire Air Force Base...
Info
This is archived material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website. It may contain outdated information and links may no longer function.

Texas Woman Sentenced to 70 Months in Prison for Possessing 10 Kilograms of Cocaine at McGuire Air Force Base

U.S. Attorney’s Office December 11, 2009
  • District of New Jersey (973) 645-2888

CAMDEN—An Arlington, Texas, woman was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison today for being in possession of 10 kilograms of cocaine while staying with her husband in guest housing at McGuire Air Force Base, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler also ordered Elizabeth Reyes, 46, to serve five years of supervised release upon the completion of her prison term.

Reyes pleaded guilty before Judge Kugler on July 31, 2009, to a one-count Information that charged her with possession with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine. At her plea hearing, Reyes stated that on March 17, 2009, she and her late husband, Dickie Stultz, who was a veteran, were guests at a hotel on the McGuire Air Force Base. That evening, Reyes was smoking marijuana in her room at the hotel when officers with the Air Force Military Police knocked on the door. Reyes subsequently told the military police that she had smoked marijuana.

Reyes admitted that after the officers obtained a warrant to search the room, the officers found a shopping bag that contained approximately 10 kilograms of cocaine, $35,000 in cash, a laptop computer and a small quantity of marijuana.

In determining the actual sentence, Judge Kugler consulted the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges that take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant's criminal history, if any, and other factors. The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.

Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

Fishman credited Special Agents with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, under the direction of Commander James Anderson, and the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun, with the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew T. Smith of the Criminal Division in Camden.

This content has been reproduced from its original source.