ALBUQUERQUE - Ernesto Flores, 44, of Hagerman, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to 60 months in prison for his methamphetamine trafficking conviction. He will be on supervised release for four years after completing his prison sentence.
Flores was arrested on March 12, 2015, on a criminal complaint charging him with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. According to the criminal complaint, on Feb. 4, 2015, officers from the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force, the Chaves County Metro Narcotics Task Force and the Eddy County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant on Flores’ residence in Hagerman. From a storage room on Flores’ property, the officers seized approximately 296.52 grams of methamphetamine. They also seized an AK-47, two handguns, a stolen handgun, $4,900 in cash and drug paraphernalia during the search.
On June 10, 2015, Flores pled guilty to a felony information charging him with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Flores admitted possessing the 296.52 grams of methamphetamine found in his storage room on Feb. 4, 2015. He also admitted that he had been selling methamphetamine.
This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the DEA, the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force, the Chaves County Metro Narcotics Task Force and the Eddy County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy M. Castellano of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.
The Pecos Valley Drug Task Force is comprised of officers from the Eddy County Sheriff’s Office, Carlsbad Police Department and Artesia Police Department and is part of the HIDTA Region VI Drug Task Force. The HIDTA Chaves County Metro Narcotics Task Force is comprised of investigators from the Roswell Police Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and the Chaves County Sherriff’s Office. 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
