A U.S. District Judge has sentenced a Mountain Lake, Minnesota, man convicted of Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance.
Francisco Javier Mendez, age 40, was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Victims Fund.
Mendez was indicted for Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance and Possession of a Firearm by a Prohibited Person by a federal grand jury in June 2024. He pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance on November 22, 2024.
On June 18, 2023, Mendez was the passenger in a vehicle involved in a traffic stop in Thayer County, Nebraska. During the traffic stop, officers discovered Mendez had a bag containing approximately 1,359 grams of methamphetamine concealed on his person. Later, Mendez told law enforcement he and the driver of the vehicle were returning to South Dakota after having purchased the methamphetamine from a source of supply in Wichita, Kansas, and were intending to distribute it on the reservations in South Dakota. Mendez stated that he and the driver had made the same trip 2-3 weeks earlier, during which they had purchased an additional three pounds of methamphetamine.
This case was investigated by the FBI. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Joyce prosecuted the case.
Mendez was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
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