Plea Agreement Requires Ten Year Prison Sentence; Defendant also Required to Forfeit $70,000 In Drug Proceeds and Five Firearms
ALBUQUERQUE - Charles Nunez, 47, of Roswell, N.M., pled guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to a methamphetamine trafficking charge. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Nunez will be sentenced to ten years in prison. He also will be ordered to forfeit $70,000 in drug proceeds and five firearms to the United States.
Nunez was arrested on March 12, 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, carrying a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm on March 12, 2016, in Chaves County, N.M. According to the complaint, on March 12, 2016, the Chaves County Metro Narcotics Task Force executed search warrants on Nunez, his residence and his vehicle, and seized approximately five pounds of methamphetamine, firearms, a large amount of cash, drug paraphernalia, and a police radio scanner.
During today’s proceedings, Nunez pled guilty to a felony information charging him with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. In entering the guilty plea, Nunez admitted that on March 12, 2016, agents seized approximately five pounds of methamphetamine and several firearms from his residence. Nunez remains in custody pending a sentencing hearing which has yet to be scheduled.
This case was investigated by the Roswell office of the FBI and the Chaves County Metro Narcotics Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa A. Ong of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office is prosecuting the case.
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
