Octavio Herrera, Methamphetamine Trafficking, New Mexico 2016

ALBUQUERQUE – Octavio Herrera, 54, of Ruidoso Downs, N.M., was sentenced to 60 months in prison for his conviction on a methamphetamine trafficking charge.

Herrera will be on supervised release for four years following his prison sentence.

Herrera was one of 34 individuals charged in December 2015, with federal and tribal drug offenses as the result of an 18-month multi-agency investigation led by the DEA and BIA into methamphetamine trafficking on the Mescalero Apache Reservation.

The investigation leading to the federal and tribal charges was initiated in May 2014, in response to an increase in violent crime on the Mescalero Apache Reservation perpetrated by methamphetamine users.

More than ten kilograms of methamphetamine were seized during the course of the investigation.

Herrera was arrested in Sept. 2016, on an indictment charging him and co-defendants Rumaldo Varela Enriquez, 46, a Mexican national, and Johnny Flowers, 51, of Hobbs, N.M., with methamphetamine trafficking offenses.

On Jan. 11, 2017, Herrera pled guilty to conspiracy and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

Enriquez pled guilty on Sept. 9, 2016, and was sentenced on March 21, 2017 to 57 months in prison and will be deported following his prison sentence.

Flowers pled guilty on Nov. 9, 2016, and was sentenced yesterday to time served followed by two years of supervised release.

The federal and tribal cases were investigated by the Las Cruces office of the DEA, District IV of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services (Mescalero Agency), BIA’s Division of Drug Enforcement, Mescalero Tribal Police Department, Hatch Police Department, FBI and Lea County Drug Task Force.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Terri J. Abernathy of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office is prosecuting the federal cases, and Mescalero Tribal Prosecutor Melissa Chavez is prosecuting the tribal cases.

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