ALBUQUERQUE – Matthew Peña, 29, of Deming, N.M., was meted out a decade behind bars by federal judges in Las Cruces following his conviction for methamphetamine trafficking.
The judge’s hammer fell this morning, sentencing Peña to ten years in the slammer followed by four years of supervised release. His crime: a two-count indictment charging him with distributing methamphetamine on June 18, 2013, in Doña Ana County and again on July 3, 2013, in Luna County.
Peña was apprehended on Jan. 27, 2014, in Deming along with Rebecca Torres, 41, Anthony Perez, 40, both of Deming, and Robert Snow, now deceased. Peña and Perez were both found guilty on May 14, 2014. Torres entered a guilty plea on April 18, 2014, and was handed a 10-month sentence.
But the heat isn’t off yet for Perez, who is still in custody awaiting sentencing. The investigation into this meth trade was spearheaded by the Las Cruces office of the FBI and the New Mexico HIDTA Regional Interagency Drug Task Force (RIDTF)/Metro Narcotics Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maria Y. Armijo and Anna R. Wright led the prosecution.
The HIDTA Metro Narcotics Task Force, a collaboration between the Las Cruces Police Department and Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, was instrumental in bringing down this operation. The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program, established by Congress under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, played a crucial role in facilitating these law enforcement efforts.
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Key Facts
- State: New Mexico
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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