Petersburg Resident Enters Guilty Pleas to Drug and Firearm Charges
| U.S. Attorney’s Office June 16, 2011 |
MARTINSBURG, WV—A 29-year-old Petersburg, West Virginia, resident entered guilty pleas on June 15, 2011, in United States District Court in Martinsburg before Magistrate Judge David J. Joel.
United States Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld, II, announced that JUAN ARNALDO GOMEZ-GARCIA entered guilty pleas to two counts of an Indictment charging him with the distribution of less than 500 grams of cocaine in Petersburg and using and carrying a firearm during and in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
GOMEZ-GARCIA, who is in custody, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $1,000,000 on the distribution count; and a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment on the firearms count, to run consecutive to any other sentence imposed.
As part of his plea, GOMEZ-GARCIA agreed to forfeit the following items, which were either used in the violations above or were purchased with the proceeds of the illegal activity: $924.00 in United States Currency; an Emerson 32” LCD HDTV; a Compaq Presario CQ62 laptop computer; a Kodak digital camera; and a 1995 Toyota Corolla automobile.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas O. Mucklow. The case was investigated by the Potomac Highlands Drug & Violent Crime Task Force, consisting of officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, West Virginia State Police - Bureau of Criminal Investigations, and Mineral County Sheriff’s Department.