Felon Sentenced to More Than 36 Years for Armed Robbery of Undercover Detective

Fort Myers, Florida – U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that U.S. District Judge John E. Steele today sentenced Eddy Luis Jose Estrella (26, Fort Myers) to 36½ years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery affecting commerce, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, distribution of Oxycodone, and using and carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking crime and a crime of violence. The court also ordered Estrella to forfeit firearms and ammunition used in the offenses.

Estrella was found guilty by a federal jury on November 10, 2011.

According to testimony presented at trial, Estrella distributed Oxycodone to an undercover Lee County Sheriff’s Office detective on January 20, and 27, 2011. Estrella was armed with a firearm during the drug transactions. Following the transaction on January 27th, Estrella offered to sell the detective a firearm. Estrella left and returned with the firearm. While showing the detective the firearm, co-defendant Miguel Angel Martinez (27, Fort Myers) approached the vehicle, and with the assistance of Estrella, robbed the detective at gunpoint. Both Estrella and Martinez were convicted felons at the time of the robbery and were prohibited by law from possessing firearms.

This case was investigated by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Cape Coral Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jesus M. Casas and Jeffrey F. Michelland.

It is another case prosecuted as a part of the Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Neighborhoods” program – a nationwide, gun-violence reduction strategy led by ATF. United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill, along with Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge, ATF, is coordinating the Project Safe Neighborhoods effort here in the Middle District of Florida in cooperation with federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.