ALBUQUERQUE – Michael Uribe, 40, of Las Cruces, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court to 63 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for violating the federal firearms and drug trafficking laws.
Uribe was arrested on Nov. 20, 2015, on an indictment charging him with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition on Sept. 17, 2015, in Dona Ana County, N.M. According to the indictment, Uribe was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition because he previously had been convicted twice on forgery charges.
On April 22, 2016, Uribe pled guilty to a felony information charging him with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. In entering the guilty plea, Uribe admitted that on Sept. 17, 2015, law enforcement officers found 45.5 grams of methamphetamine, a revolver and ammunition in his hotel room during a consensual search. Uribe further admitted that he was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition because of his status as a convicted felon.
This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the FBI and the HIDTA Regional Interagency Drug Task Force/Metro Narcotics Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dustin Segovia and Maria Y. Armijo of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office prosecuted the case.
The HIDTA Regional Interagency Drug Task Force/Metro Narcotics Task Force is comprised of officers from the Las Cruces Police Department, the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, HSI and the New Mexico State Police. The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program was created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. HIDTA is a program of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) which provides assistance to federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug-trafficking regions of the United States and seeks to reduce drug trafficking and production by facilitating coordinated law enforcement activities and information sharing.