I have a reason for Posting this otherwise non newsworthy piece on another drug smuggler smuggling one more batch: I would like readers feedback.
Is 95 POUNDS of pure crystal methamphetamine really only worth $80,000 USD wholesale ?
Is 100 months a fair sentence for a crime who's maximum penalty is: life imprisonment and / or $10,000,000 fine. 10 Million US dollars. Plus it has taken nearly a year to sentence the defendant.
This is NOT an Op-ed, I am curious what our BB followers think.
Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s OfficeSouthern District of California
Wed, September 2, 2020
San Diego, Ca: Oscar Luna-Aquino was sentenced in federal court yesterday to 100 months in prison for importing methamphetamine into the United States. A jury found Luna-Aquino guilty after a two-day trial in February 2020.
At trial, the Government’s evidence established that Luna-Aquino drove a car into the United States at the San Ysidro, California, Port of Entry on October 16, 2019.
When handing down the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Larry A. Burns emphasized the large amount of methamphetamine, the prior smuggling incidents, and the danger of methamphetamine and the personal destruction the drug causes.
“The extremely potent meth smuggled from Mexico contributes to more deaths in San Diego County than opioids. And many deaths result from poly-drug use, most of which involve meth as a significant aggravating factor,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer.
“The sentence set forth today recognizes the severe harm meth inflicts on our community.” U.S. Attorney Brewer commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric Olah and Seth Askins, as well as Homeland Security Investigations and Customs & Border Protection for their work on this case.
DEFENDANT Criminal Case No. 3:20-CR-439-LAB
Oscar Luna-Aquino Age: 34 Residence: Mexico
SUMMARY OF CHARGE
21 U.S.C. §§ 952/960
Maximum Penalties: life imprisonment; $10,000,000 fine.
INVESTIGATING AGENCIES: Homeland Security Investigations / Customs and Border Protection
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Seth Askins and Eric R. Olah (619)546-7540
Press Release Number: CAS20-0901-Luna-Aquino. Updated September 2, 2020 from Sept 1, 2020
In early 2020, before pandemic, it was about $1000 in TJ, probably a little less.
ReplyDeleteLess than $1000, you could get it in LA for $1,000-$1,500. Not worth the risk in my opinion. The reward does not match the risk.
DeleteHi J, always good to hear from you.
DeleteHello! I love your blog- I read it all the time and recommend it often. I am a criminal defense attorney who practices in this district. What's interesting is that the sentence was below the 10 year mandatory minimum sentence- even after a jury trial- which means that the defendant likely qualified for "safety valve" even after trial. 100 months is a long sentence for a drug courier, normally a first time courier is looking at a sentence of two to four years. Judge Burns often sentences drug couriers to higher than average sentences, but 100 months after a jury trial is about two years less than what I would expect (120 months, or the mandatory minimum.)
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work!
Would a safety valve mean they cooperated? If so it’s a terrible deal
DeleteIf he got the "safety valve", doesnt that mean he snitched??
DeleteGoing off what i know about meth, and meth sentences, if i remember right- 50+ grams is a 10yr minimum. A friend of mine just got out of the feds- and he was telling me how crazy some of the meth charges/sentences people had- if they hit you with that conspiracy charge on top, youre outta here- he said the majority of people in there were white people, with meth charges- decades-
It seems like the gov is doing the same thing it did to black people and crack, their now doing to white people with meth-
A lot of people he knew had sentences from 10yrs to over 35 years, or life. Crazy
https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/guidelines-manual/2018/CHAPTER_2_D.pdf
Deletethis charge alone carries a base level offense of level 38.. level 32 carries a mandatory min of 120 months.
Cat dirt Right on bro. Thanks for the info.
DeleteHe had brought in meth a few times beforehand, and poisoning the addicts, great sentence.
DeleteHello to you too and welcome !
DeleteExcellent comment from someone in the know.
Really appreciate it and your observation about the mandatory minimum is interesting. I hadn’t considered that but I am not the legal eagle of BB !
Thank you very much.
Naw... soo much is coming across.. in california its probably 1/3 [of that.. but I think the FEDS estimate it by counting every grams at street price
ReplyDeleteOver 8 yrs for getting popped with under 100 lbs of the good dope is a good deal! there are cats doing that much time for far less coca! it's all a game and at the end of the day if your ppl don't get clipped and your still breathing then you good!
ReplyDeleteYou make more off coca than glass and the consequences are usually not this good. More times this glass will get you a long prison sentence not to mention the lives you ruin!!
DeleteWell, I'm happily not a lawyer, but I'll counter with suggesting that using sentencing guidelines lend to the creation of a rather permissible leniency, that the punishment might have been increased so as to send a message that the public is tired of this pollution (drug dealers) in our society, we are tired of watching our children struggle in their communities to stay away from illicit drug use. Drugs kill, this criminal might well have indirectly caused deaths; and I propose the death penalty for people who manufacture and deal illicit drugs.
ReplyDeleteThen what about the gov and all their "lobbyists" who sell basically the same shit, just with a label on it?? For all the "illegal" drugs out there, theres an equivelant at the pharmacy.. the people in dc, the pharmaceutical companies, and doctors prescribing the same shit- funny how that works,right??
DeletePero andava de caliente en el desmadre.
ReplyDeleteI have seen hundreds of inmates being sentenced at San Diego County Superior Court. It has always been just a booking number until people start shooting shit about their life. Easy money is not free and once you buy a ticket to get on a ride you might not like the whole ride. I have also seen moms, children, wives and side chick visit inmates. I have read hundred of good stories via inmate mail and order hits as well. Sentences sometimes do not fit the crime but old convictions fuck you up at the end. I have seen people walk out of court because someone fuck up storing evidence but I have seen inmates sentenced to death. Sometimes crimes pay some times you have to pay for the broken dishes...SDSO
ReplyDeleteSDSO means San Diego South Observer
DeleteBut california doesnt have the death penalty?
Deletehe got lucky only 8 years, thats atleast 40+ and he's young, he can sleep it off through those 8 years.
ReplyDeleteNot long enough Sentence for dealing meth LIFE or Death in the most horriable prison
ReplyDeleteprice ?? idk
Meth Fent are about the worst drugs on earth The damage it does
and the millions and millions crooks are making is sicking
over 15 yrs hard labor
You should lock up the addicts then. If there’s no demand there’s no supply but if America is asking for it someone has to provide besides US pharma
Delete9:55 Organized Crime, i mean Big Pharma, Big Agro, Big Banking, big politicians who know when somebody is paying them their right price, Lobbyists who know the price is right better than any TV Show host, need to show crimimal drug trafficking mexicans how to do it right.
DeleteThat would save us all a lot of pain and murdering, but LE would not have so much overtime.
I live in San Diego and see the effects "shit" has on the area I live in which is the South Bay. It's so cheap and different than the stuff we fucked with before the year 2000 that it's like an entirely new drug. It puts you to sleep and you can eat on it. It just sucks compared to when San Diego's East County and Riverside were like the same meth producing entities. Yeah, anybody caught trafficking meth deserves what they get.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think that is?? What the mexicans are making in those super labs, is like 99%
DeleteI cant imagine the bikers that used to make it, were making speed anywhere near that strong. So what made late 90s metb, better than the 99% meth out there right now??
I live in San Diego and see the effects "shit" has on the area I live in which is the South Bay. It's so cheap and different than the stuff we fucked with before the year 2000 that it's like an entirely new drug. It puts you to sleep and you can eat on it. It just sucks compared to when San Diego's East County and Riverside were like the same meth producing entities. Yeah, anybody caught trafficking meth deserves what they get.
ReplyDeleteI'd say life and a $10,000,000 fine would have been more appropriate.
ReplyDeleteI mean u have rapists drunk drivers who kill ppl and Enron scammers who do far less time and ruined more ppl
ReplyDeleteLives so what u have to say now?
the drug war is _the_ national discrace...lets make it clearer than walter white making fad crystal clear....the war has never been on drugs, the war is on you the citizen and every other adult around you that might still have a mind left to think and choose with. the war is on personal liberty? 100% but above all the war is about control, control of market prices, control of peoples movements habits thoughts ect. if a system has the ability to keep so many locked within its scramble to decide what otherwise law abiding adults can choose to partake in or freely ingest, how to feel and even what to think...?
ReplyDeletewell our defense attorney above could make the case winning arguement that if any system of governement has its citizens so thoroughly grasped by the mind, that system would without a doubt, surely has its peoples by the metaphorical gonads too.
it will only change when the people decide its enough. decide that its okay that others may freely partake in activities and be free to feel _____ even if that may be different from my own ______. that a substance and taking there of shouldnt be a freakn crime in a free and open society! thats the definition of hypocritical saying one thing while doing the other yes?
its never been about safety or health of people, perfect example ive learned from reading bb and other sources is the fentanyl problem....the only reason fentanyl exists on the streets is due to greed and the result of the restriction of a less easily obtainable yet more disirable less harmful product...whats that say?
to answer the other part of your question the price is whatever one is willing to pay for any product legal or otherwise plus the uhh little foot note of an added 10-life risk inflation adjusted tax cost of dodging insanity to get a product to market..
intelligent peoples can clearly
see that society pays a way heavier price and risk unfathomably far greater collective costs than we can imagine by consenting to continuation of this war. its easy for many to discriminate against people different than thenselves, this desire to control or punish others simply on that alone is dangerous. once you see it for what it is you cant ignore it.
who benefits more from drug laws? more jobs for cops, servants of the court, now trending criminal occupations? you? your family? friends? your communities? try to legalize drugs or actual freedom see what kind of cretins respresenting various footlocker industries and three letter orgs come out the woodwork to stand against the will of the people, of you and i, and all the freedom loving people of liberty and empathy, then it will be clear whose motives are where...who runs the show and who decides what.
?cui bono???who benefits indeed?
now downloading system update:
Empathy > Fallacy
checkmate.
you need to lay off the meth💨😬😳
Deleteyou took the words right out of my mouth
DeleteI did time myself on a very similar case I was looking at 120 months which was minimum mandatory I qualified for safety valve ,no priors ,no weapons and didn't lie to feds they didn't need me I was at very low of the chain and had higher people than me being cooperative I got only 21 months my guidelines were at,36 well word is if u go to any tryal with the feds ur loosing and if as a courier u looking at less than 40months but since u make them upset they gonna ask the judge to go higher as a recommendation and judges normally agrees saw it many times best advice get what they offer never get the trial path is a lose lose for the acussed
ReplyDeleteYou just burned yourself out, dropping dimes smh
Delete11:16 knows, must have cause...
DeleteHow much was you up for, 1000 months?
Our honorable Yaqui this is a news worthy article keep it up, furthermore feedback on his sentence fits the crime, the judge made it crystal clear on why he was given 100 months. Let that be a lesson to those that continue bringing drugs.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between the perception and the reality.
ReplyDeleteThe US likes to project itself as law and order, incorruptable. Mainstream media exists to buttress that pillar.
Then we have Reality. 100 months is more like 5 years tops. For all that meth countless lives ruined, and i'm talking children because they're passing around that crap at parties-its so cheap.
That sentence is a wrist slap. A dope dealer, she once told me "you don't stay in jail if you have friends."
The reality. The US is too preoccupied with a million other issues to pay much attention to scummy meth suppliers.
It would take a dedicated journalist (a group of them) to follow these trials and publicise these joke sentences to get action. Of course death threats would then ensue. Not many smart, caring people want to subject their families to the kind of harrassment that follows.
Thanks, Chivis for your thoughtful post.
100 Months is not a joke, that adds up to a lot of time in 8*10cell
DeleteHey 7:05;read the credits, Yaqui posted this one.
Delete705 da famous yanqui gets some credit for this one wake up
DeleteLooks like boy was set up and nurtured and cultivated until he was ready for the market, all these billion dollar busts never cover the expenses the US government incurrs that benefit most of all the directors and administrators that can never go for the throat but neber have a shortage of burros and mules and independent contractors they create themselves for purposes of Show and Tell they learned in Kindetgarten.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the arrest and conviction, but it would look better if the agencies involved could make a ring of it and hang it from their fundillos.
Extenuating circumstances
ReplyDeleteEh, he skated with less than ten years. The Feds are horse traders. If caught, it will go much smoother if you have something to haggle over. Money, real estate, businesses, fingerings, double-agenting, etc.
ReplyDelete"Double-agenting??"
DeleteLmao is that what they call snitching now??
By the way- i asked a lawyer what percentage of people snitch nowadays- he said 99%
in west texas lubbock area a 1 pound is about 3500 to 4500 right now prices are at a 10 year high that's purchased through local from a good mexico connect for 1 pound it's 2500 if you by 10 it 1800 a pound of you get 50 or more it's 1000 abound 75 or more it's 800 a pound of you go to Mexico and get it it $50.00usd to $250.00usd a kilo or that or at least from Arizona to big bend are of border
ReplyDelete3030
Thank you, always good to get feed back from the ground .
Deletethe amount of time he got for the amount of time shows that he ratted on a few due to the amount of dope having a federal mandatory minimum that starts out at 10 years
ReplyDelete3030