An Anaheim man involved in a Mexico-Orange County criminal conspiracy annually distributing more than 75 kilograms of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin will pay dearly for his crimes.
In late March, U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter handed Adrian Ibarra a whopping prison term of nearly 22 years plus 10 years of supervised probation upon his return to society.
A federal jury convicted Ibarra in August 2012 for his role in distributing 7.5 pounds of 95 percent pure methamphetamine at a Target store parking lot.
]
Ibarra was clueless he'd been a target of a team of undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents who used a confidential informant, wiretaps, physical surveillance and raids to bust the ring.
One reason for the severe punishment is that Ibarra already served a five-year prison sentence following a 2002 state conviction for dealing eight kilograms of cocaine in Orange County, according to court records.
In calling for a tough sentence, Assistant United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally described the defendant as “a sophisticated trafficker” and “a danger to the public.”
This week, Ibarra, 40, filed an appeal of his conviction.
He remains in the custody of U.S. marshals in the Santa Ana Jail and will be bused to a federal prison in coming days.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
