Francisco Alfredo Montes-Vargas, a drug dealer from Culiacan, Mexico, has been sentenced to 292 months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release after he was found guilty of a federal jury for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents initiated a wiretap investigation of Montes-Vargas and his co-conspirators in November of 2009. Based on intercepted calls, agents learned that on December 11, 2009, Montes-Vargas and his co-conspirators arranged for the delivery of drugs to a house in Phoenix. Agents obtained a search warrant for the home and found two loaded semi-automatic handguns, one loaded semi-automatic rifle, 19 kilograms of cocaine, 11 kilograms of methamphetamine, and approximately $162,000 in U.S. currency.
Additional intercepted calls on January 28, 2010, allowed agents to identify a car that was headed for Montes-Vargas and have that car stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 8. That car contained another 9 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed in a hidden compartment.