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Press Release

Cuban National Residing In Louisville On A Visa Found Guilty Of Conspiring To Possess And Distribute Ten Kilograms Of Cocaine

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Cuban National residing in Louisville, Kentucky on a Visa was convicted by a federal jury late yesterday, in United States District Court, on all charges including conspiring with others to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine, announced United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr.

Following a three-day trial, a federal jury deliberated approximately three hours before finding Manuel Sile-Perez, 54, guilty of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and aiding and abetting an attempt to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. 

Sile-Perez was charged individually by federal Complaint on November 5, 2014, and charged by grand jury indictment with three co-defendants on December 2, 2014.

During the trial, the United States provided evidence of Sile-Perez’s role in the attempted purchase of cocaine for approximately $100,000 from an alleged California based supplier. The “supplier” was an FBI Inland Crackdown Allied Task Force Confidential Human Source (INCA CHS).

The CHS met with Sile-Perez and co-defendants Walter Elliot, Nathaniel Barbour and Roberto Remedios Faguagua (Remedios) at a storage business located on Preston Highway in Louisville, the agreed upon location where the supposed cocaine was stored. The meeting was captured on video tape.

Sile-Perez is scheduled to be sentenced by Chief District Judge Joseph H. McKinley JR., on October 27, 2016 in Louisville.He faces a sentence from five to forty years in prison for each count.

Assistant United States Attorney Larry Fentress prosecuted the case.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with assistance from the California Department of Justice, conducted the investigation.

Updated July 29, 2016

Topic
Drug Trafficking