Third Defendant Sentenced in Bonneville County Traffic Stop Meth Distribution Case

POCATELLO—Angelica Campos, 27, of Caldwell, Idaho, was sentenced today to 121 months in prison and fined $500 for conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. U.S. District Judge Brian Ted Stewart of the District of Utah also ordered Campos to serve five years of supervised release following her prison term and to forfeit all property used to commit the crime and proceeds derived from the crime. Campos pleaded guilty to the charges on October 23, 2013.

According to court records, an Idaho State Police trooper stopped a vehicle being driven by co-defendant Noe Gonzalez on February 12, 2013, in Bonneville County. Campos was a passenger, and both she and Gonzalez were ultimately arrested. Pursuant to a search warrant, the vehicle was searched the next day. Hidden in the dash of the vehicle, police found a white tube sock containing four baggies of methamphetamine within a larger zip lock bag. The methamphetamine totaled 95.53 grams. Police also found a handgun and loaded magazine in the glove box. Recorded calls between Campos and her sister, Vanessa Campos, revealed that Vanessa Campos planned to get the vehicle out of police impound and recover the methamphetamine before it was discovered by law enforcement. By the time Vanessa Campos recovered the vehicle, the police had already located the drugs.

Vanessa Campos, 25, and Gonzalez, 29, both of Caldwell, Idaho, were sentenced in January to serve 47 months and 151 months, respectively, for their roles in the conspiracy.

The case was the result of an investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which included the cooperative law enforcement efforts of the Idaho State Police; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office; Idaho Falls Police Department; Madison County Sheriff’s Office; Rexburg Police Department; Bingham County Sheriff’s Office; Fremont County Sheriff’s Office; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI); and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Other federal agencies participating in the OCDETF program include the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service.

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.