ALBUQUERQUE - Pablo Rocha, 34, of Albuquerque, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to 151 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for his methamphetamine trafficking conviction.
Rocha was arrested in Aug. 2013, and co-defendants Tony Daugherty, 47, also of Albuquerque, and Danielle McKee, 25, and Wilson Smith, 47, both of Alamogordo, N.M., were charged on Aug. 27, 2013, in an indictment charging them with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. The indictment alleged that the conspiracy existed from July 30, 2013 through Aug. 7, 2013, in Otero and Bernalillo Counties, N.M.
The indictment was superseded on Dec. 17, 2013, to add Fabian Jaquez-Lazo, 25, a Mexican national residing in Albuquerque, as a defendant. In addition to charging all four defendants with participation in a methamphetamine distribution conspiracy, the superseding indictment also included four substantive counts charging the defendants with distributing methamphetamine in Bernalillo and Otero Counties.
On April 10, 2014, Rocha plead guilty to the superseding indictment and admitted that on July 31, 2013, he and his co-conspirators distributed 84.1 grams of methamphetamine to an undercover agent in Bernalillo County. Rocha also admitted they distributed 120.2 grams of methamphetamine to an undercover agent on Aug. 7, 2013, in Otero County. He also admitted that he and Daugherty distributed 16u grams of methamphetamine to an undercover agent in Bernalillo County on Aug. 15, 2013, and that on Aug. 29, 2013 he, Daugherty and Jaquez-Lazo distributed 201.2 grams of methamphetamine to an undercover agent.
On April 3, 2014, Jaquez-Lazo pled guilty to the conspiracy count and a distribution count of the superseding indictment. The next day, Daugherty pled guilty to all counts of the superseding indictment against him. On April 10, 2014, Smith pled guilty to the conspiracy count and two distribution counts of the superseding indictment. All three men remain in custody pending sentencing hearings.
This case was investigated by the FBI, DEA, the HIDTA Regional Interagency Drug Task Force/Metro Narcotics Task Force and is being 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.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
