A Southern California man is in federal custody today and facing five charges involving the sales of methamphetamine in Riverside and Orange counties.
According to a federal grand jury indictment issued this month, Roberto Duenas and a partner apparently using an alias repeated sold controlled substances to a confidential informant working in league with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in 2011 and 2012.
During the course of the undercover operation, Duenas (a.k.a. “Sneaks”) on separate occasions sold 26.5 grams, 51.9 grams, 100.6 grams and 29.6 grams of meth in Perris and Stanton for a total of $7,500, according to the indictment.
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Because of the defendant's prior criminal history, substance abuse and multiple parole violations, U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas F. McCormick accepted the request of Assistant United States Attorney Michael Anthony Brown to deny bail.
Duenas, who was born in 1983, entered “not guilty” pleas on each count.
A two or three day jury trial has tentatively been set for March 11 with U.S. District Court Judge Josephine L. Staton inside Orange County's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse.
If convicted, Duenas could face a severe prison stint.
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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.