One More Individual Sentenced in Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force Case

BOISE—U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced that another member of a southwest Idaho meth trafficking conspiracy was sentenced today in federal court. The defendant, Juan Carlos Arredondo-Sicairos, 34, appeared before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Boise to be sentenced for the crime of possession with intent to distribute in excess of 50 grams of methamphetamine. He was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty on November 15, 2012.

According to court documents, Arredondo-Sicairos is a Mexican national from Durango, Mexico, who operated out of Delano, California. In October, 2011, he supplied methamphetamine to the co-conspirators distributing the drug in Idaho. Five members of the conspiracy have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced: Alfredo Dominguez-Villareal, Jorge Jimenez, Tanna Spencer, Hector Morales, and Cynthia Casillas.

Three co-defendants are awaiting sentencing: Nelson Fernando Garcia-Soto, a Mexican national, on April 9; and Delia Garcia-Pineda, of Boise, and Alonso Martinez, also a Mexican national, from Delano, California, on April 10.

Co-defendant Samuel Chavez, 32, of Boise, is set for trial on March 25. He is charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and use of a communication facility in furtherance of drug trafficking.

The case was the result of a joint investigation of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), led by the Drug Enforcement Administration in conjunction with the Boise Police Department and the Ada County Sheriff’s Office. The OCDETF program is a federal multi agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations. Federal task force members include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and U.S. Marshals Service.