Michael Uribe, Methamphetamine Possession, New Mexico 2024

Michael Uribe, 40, of Las Cruces, N.M., is headed to federal prison for 63 months after being caught with nearly half a pound of methamphetamine, a revolver, and live ammunition in a hotel room last year. The conviction seals another chapter in a criminal history marked by repeated violations of federal law, including prior forgery convictions that barred him from possessing any firearms or ammunition.

On September 17, 2015, law enforcement officers conducted a consensual search of Uribe’s hotel room in Dona Ana County and uncovered 45.5 grams of methamphetamine, a loaded revolver, and additional rounds of ammunition. At the time, Uribe was already a convicted felon—twice over for forgery—making his possession of any firearm or ammo a federal crime. He was indicted on November 20, 2015, on charges of meth possession with intent to distribute and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Uribe didn’t fight the charges. On April 22, 2016, he pled guilty to a federal felony information, admitting in court that the drugs and gun were his, and that he knew it was illegal for him to have them. His guilty plea confirmed what investigators had long suspected: a repeat offender was back in the game, trafficking meth and packing heat in southern New Mexico.

The case was built through collaboration between the FBI’s Las Cruces office and the HIDTA Regional Interagency Drug Task Force, also known as the Metro Narcotics Task Force. This multi-agency unit includes officers from the Las Cruces Police Department, the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the New Mexico State Police. Their work targets high-level drug operations in one of the Southwest’s busiest trafficking corridors.

Funded by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program, the task force operates under a mandate established by Congress in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. Its mission: dismantle drug networks through coordinated raids, intelligence sharing, and federal prosecutions. Uribe’s case is the latest example of that strategy in action.

Prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dustin Segovia and Maria Y. Armijo from the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office, Uribe’s conviction ends with a 63-month federal prison sentence followed by three years of supervised release. The message from federal authorities is clear: felons caught dealing drugs and carrying guns will face hard time, especially in New Mexico’s enforcement hot zones.

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