POCATELLO – Carlos Beltran-Vega, 58, a Mexican national most currently living in Rigby, Idaho, was sentenced yesterday by Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill to 135 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Beltran-Vega pleaded guilty to the charge on August 26, 2015.
According to the plea agreement and sentencing hearing, On February 16, 2015, law enforcement received information that Beltran-Vega , along with co-Defendants, had a large amount of methamphetamine in a cooler at a hotel in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Officers conducted surveillance on the hotel room and observed Beltran-Vega, along with another man exit the hotel room and get into a vehicle. The two men had possession of a red cooler when they went from the hotel room into the vehicle. A short time later the vehicle was stopped, and a canine alerted to the presence of drugs in the cooler. Methamphetamine was found in the cooler. A subsequent search of the hotel room revealed a larger amount of methamphetamine.
The case was the result of a joint investigation of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, in conjunction with, the Bonneville Country Sheriff’s Office, the Idaho Falls Police Department, and the Nampa Police Department. The case was prosecuted jointly by the attorneys from the United States Attorney’s Office and the Bonneville County Prosecutor’s Office. The remaining defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on December 21.
The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.