ALBUQUERQUE - Marco Quiroga, 37, of Lovington, 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, Quiroga will be sentenced to 70 months in federal prison followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court.
Quiroga was arrested in June 2018, on a criminal complaint charging him with distributing methamphetamine to undercover law enforcement agents on Feb. 1, 2018, in Lea County, N.M.
During today’s proceedings, Quiroga pled guilty to a felony information charging him with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. In entering the guilty plea, Quiroga admitted that on Feb. 1, 2018, he distributed approximately 112.9 grams of pure methamphetamine to an undercover law enforcement agent.
Quiroga remains in custody pending a sentencing hearing which has yet to be scheduled.
This case was investigated by the DEA and the Lea County Drug Task Force and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Terri J. Abernathy of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.
The Lea County Drug Task Force is comprised of officers from the Lea County Sheriff’s Office, Hobbs Police Department, Lovington Police Department, Eunice Police Department the Tatum Police Department and the Jal Police Department, and is part of the NM HIDTA Region VI Drug Task Force. 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
