Denver Woman Sentenced to 8 Years for Meth & Firearms

Amy Cruz, 37, a Denver woman, was sentenced to 8 years in federal prison for possessing a pound of methamphetamine and three firearms.

Cruz received the prison term after pleading guilty on October 13, 2022, to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. The sentence, 96 months in prison, was handed down by United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand in Sioux City, Iowa. Cruz will also serve a 4-year term of supervised release after the prison term.

Evidence in the case showed that on April 27, 2022, Cruz and a co-defendant committed several offenses in Colorado before traveling cross-country to deliver drugs to Minnesota. The duo stole a vehicle from a car dealership in Sioux City, Iowa, and led law enforcement on a high-speed pursuit with speeds exceeding 100mph.

During the pursuit, Cruz and the co-defendant began discarding items from the stolen vehicle before switching to a second stolen vehicle. The pursuit ended when they crashed into an unoccupied car in Le Mars, Iowa. The two were transported to the hospital with varying degrees of injury.

Several totes were found along Cruz’s path, and some in the stolen vehicles, which contained stolen marijuana from a Colorado dispensary, approximately one pound of methamphetamine, three firearms, and numerous other items that had been reported stolen.

Cruz is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until she can be transported to a federal prison. The case was investigated by the Tri-State Drug Task Force, a multi-agency task force consisting of law enforcement personnel from various agencies, including the DEA, Sioux City Police Department, and Homeland Security Investigations.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Patrick T. Greenwood and Kraig R. Hamit. According to court documents, Cruz and her co-defendant were involved in a string of crimes across multiple states before being apprehended. The case file number is 22-4045, and court documents can be found at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.