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Press Release

Las Cruces Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Drug Trafficking Conviction

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Mexico
Defendant Prosecuted as Part of HOPE Initiative which Seeks to Reduce the Number of Opioid-Related Deaths in New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE – Anthony Calderon, 41, of Las Cruces, N.M., was sentenced this morning in federal court in Las Cruces to 24 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his heroin and methamphetamine trafficking convictions.

Calderon was arrested on Aug. 8, 2014, in Las Cruces on an indictment charging him with two counts of distributing heroin and one count of distributing methamphetamine in Doña Ana County, N.M.  The indictment also charged Calderon’s co-defendant Orlando Roman, 35, also of Las Cruces, with one count of heroin distribution.  Roman was arrested on Oct. 9, 2014.

On March 5, 2015, Calderon pled guilty to all three counts of the indictment and admitted that on April 15 and April 16, 2014, he distributed approximately 75.3 grams of heroin to a person working under the supervision of law enforcement.  Calderon also admitted that on May 27, 2014, he distributed approximately 101.1 grams of methamphetamine to a person working under the supervision of law enforcement.

Co-defendant Roman pled guilty on March 6, 2015, to one count of distribution of heroin.  Roman was sentenced on July 22, 2015, to eight months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the FBI and the HIDTA Regional Interagency Drug Task Force/Metro Narcotics Task Force and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Y. Armijo of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.

The HIDTA Regional Interagency Drug Task Force/Metro Narcotics Task Force is comprised of officers from the Las Cruces Police Department, the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, HSI and the New Mexico State Police.  The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program was created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988.  HIDTA is a program of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) which provides assistance to federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug-trafficking regions of the United States and seeks to reduce drug trafficking and production by facilitating coordinated law enforcement activities and information sharing.

This case is being prosecuted pursuant to the New Mexico Heroin and Opioid Prevention and Education (HOPE) Initiative.  The HOPE Initiative is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center that is partnering with the Bernalillo County Opioid Accountability Initiative with the overriding goal of reducing the number of opioid-related deaths in the District of New Mexico.  The HOPE Initiative comprised of five components:  (1) prevention and education; (2) treatment; (3) law enforcement; (4) reentry; and (5) strategic planning.  The law enforcement component of the HOPE Initiative is led by the Organized Crime Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the DEA in conjunction with their federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement partners.  Targeting members of major heroin trafficking organizations for investigation and prosecution is a priority of the HOPE Initiative.

Updated October 21, 2015