Drug and Sawed Off Shotgun Dealer Sentenced to 78 Months

BOISE - Juan Diego Garnica, 32, of Nampa, Idaho, was sentenced last Thursday in U.S. District Court to 78 months in prison, followed by five years’ supervised release, for distributing methamphetamine and possessing an unregistered firearm, U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced.  Garnica was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill.

According to court records, on January 24, 2018, Garnica sold methamphetamine and firearms to a confidential informant working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  One of the firearms was a sawed off shotgun with a barrel length of ten inches.  Under federal law, it is illegal to possess certain firearms, like sawed off shotguns, unless the firearm is registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.  Garnica had not registered the sawed off shotgun in that record.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This case was prosecuted as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program.  PSN is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.