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Lakeland Man Sentenced For Role In Drug Ring

U.S. Attorney's Office

Authorities have seized more than 500 kilograms of cocaine and more than $3 million in drug-related proceeds and assets in the investigation.

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TBO.com

Published: November 7, 2008

TAMPA – Two high-level conspirators in a drug trafficking ring that smuggled cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana from Texas to Florida have been sentenced to federal prison.

Authorities said the ring smuggled the drugs between the late 1990s and 2005. More than 30 defendants have been convicted in the Middle District of Florida, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

To date, authorities have seized more than 500 kilograms of cocaine and more than $3 million in drug-related proceeds and assets as part of the ongoing investigation involving shipments of drugs to Manatee and Lake counties.

Jose Manuel Mejia, Lakeland, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison, to be followed by five years of probation, according to a news release issued today by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Jose Roel Cruz of San Benito, Texas, was sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison, followed by five years of probation.

Both defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute, and to possess with the intent to distribute, 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, and, in the case of Cruz, 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana.
Cruz's orchestrated the delivery of cocaine and marijuana shipments from Texas to Florida using commercial vehicles he owned and drivers he employed as part of a legitimate trucking business, authorities said. Mejia acted as a broker for the receipt and subsequent distribution of these shipments once they arrived in Florida.

Authorities said the case against the two men can be traced to the interdiction by Border Patrol agents in Sarita, Texas, of a shipment of 48 kilograms of cocaine that Cruz had hired a courier to take from Texas to Palmetto and Groveland. When he was caught, the courier agreed to cooperate with law enforcement. He later recorded incriminating telephone conversations with Cruz regarding the shipment's delivery, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Cruz eventually suspected the courier was assisting law enforcement, and enlisted Mejia's help in conducting counter-surveillance of the courier when he arrived in Florida.

Cruz and Mejia planned to kill the courier, and obtained a weapon and ammunition, the news release states. They later abandoned that plan and tried to disassociate themselves from the cocaine shipment, the U.S. Attorney's Office stated.

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