Mexican National Receives 10-Year Sentence for Trafficking Methamphetamine in San Juan County

ALBUQUERQUE—Yesterday in federal court in Albuquerque, Cipriano Cardenas-Uriarte, also known as “Chapano,” 38, a Mexican national who resided in Farmington, N.M., was sentenced to a 10-year term of imprisonment for his methamphetamine trafficking conviction. Cardenas-Uriarte will be deported after he completes his prison sentence.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales said that Cardenas-Uriarte was charged with trafficking in methamphetamine in a six-count indictment that was filed under seal on May 26, 2010. The indictment was unsealed after Cardenas-Uriarte was transferred from custody in the District of Arizona, where he was convicted of a federal immigration offense, to federal custody in New Mexico in September 2010. He has remained in federal custody since that time. On June 2, 2011, Cardenas-Uriarte pled guilty to all six counts of the indictment. There was no formal plea agreement between Cardenas-Uriarte and the United States.

Court filings reflect that Cardenas-Uriarte was a member of a drug trafficking organization operating in San Juan County that allegedly was linked with and supplied by the Sinaloa Cartel. Cardenas-Uriarte is from Sinaloa, Mexico, and was involved in making direct sales of methamphetamine to confidential sources who were working with law enforcement officers in an undercover capacity. From March through November 2009, Cardenas-Uriarte distributed an aggregate of 321 net grams of methamphetamine to law enforcement sources through a series of hand-to-hand sales ranging from a few grams to a few ounces, for which Cardenas-Uriarte was paid thousands of dollars during that time frame.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Reeve L. Swainston, and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Region II Narcotics Task Force, which is based in San Juan County, New Mexico.