Conviction Arises Out of Attempt to Purchase Six Kilograms Of Cocaine from Undercover HSI Agents for $150,000
ALBUQUERQUE - Giovanni Montijo-Dominguez, 37, a Mexican national illegally in the United States, was sentenced today in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to 120 months in prison for his conviction on federal cocaine trafficking and illegal reentry charges. Montijo-Dominguez will be deported after completing his prison sentence.
Montijo-Dominguez and co-defendant Luis Mendoza-Alarcon, 46, also a Mexican national, were arrested on Oct. 7, 2014, and were charged by criminal complaint with cocaine trafficking offenses. They were indicted on Nov. 5, 2014, and both were charged with cocaine trafficking offenses, while Montijo-Dominguez also was charged with illegal reentry to the United States. Mendoza-Alarcon and Montijo-Dominguez subsequently were charged in a superseding indictment on June 30, 2016. The superseding indictment charged Mendoza-Alarcon and Montijo-Dominguez with conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute from Oct. 3, 2014 through Oct. 7, 2014; Mendoza-Alarcon with carrying a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime on Oct. 7, 2014; and Montijo-Dominguez with illegal reentering the United States on Oct. 7, 2014. According to the superseding indictment, the defendants committed the offenses in Bernalillo County, N.M.
On June 2, 2017, after a two-week trial, a federal jury convicted Mendoza-Alarcon and Montijo-Dominguez of conspiring to possess at least five kilograms of cocaine with intent to distribute it to others.
The evidence at trial established that between Oct. 3, 2014 and Oct. 7, 2014, Mendoza-Alarcon negotiated the sale of approximately six kilograms of cocaine from an undercover law enforcement agent. On Oct. 7, 2014, Mendoza-Alarcon and Montijo-Dominguez arrived in a white Chevrolet Tahoe in the parking lot of a store in southwest Albuquerque to meet with undercover agents. Although Mendoza-Alarcon expressed concern to the undercover agents that the parking lot might be occupied by law enforcement, the defendants proceeded with the sale by presenting the undercover agents with a large sum of cash in order to buy six kilograms of cocaine. Law enforcement agents testified that, once the signal to arrest Mendoza-Alarcon and Montijo-Dominguez was given, Montijo-Dominguez attempted to run away, but was quickly caught and arrested. The agents searched the defendants’ white Chevrolet Tahoe, and found a functional firearm loaded with live ammunition.
On July 27, 2017, Montijo-Dominguez pled guilty to Count 3 of the superseding indictment charging him with illegal reentering the United States. In entering the guilty plea, Montijo-Dominguez admitted that he was prohibited from being in the United States on Oct. 7, 2014, because he was previously deported on Dec. 3, 2009 and did not have permission to reenter the United States.
This case was investigated by the Albuquerque office of Homeland Security Investigations and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samuel A. Hurtado and Paul Mysliwiec.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
