Two Defendants Sentenced For Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine

POCATELLO — Vanessa Campos, 25, and Noe Gonzalez, 29, both of Caldwell, Idaho, were sentenced today to serve 47 months and 151 months, respectively, for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.  Judge N. Randy Smith of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting by designation as a district court judge, also ordered Campos and Gonzalez to serve five years of supervised release following their prison terms, and to forfeit all property used to commit the crime and proceeds derived from the crime.  Gonzalez was also ordered to pay a $500 fine. Campos pleaded guilty to the charges on October 16, 2013; Gonzalez on August 29.

According to court records, an Idaho State Police trooper stopped a vehicle being driven by Gonzalez on February 12, 2013, in Bonneville County.  Campos’s sister was a passenger, and both she and Gonzalez were ultimately arrested. Pursuant to a search warrant, the vehicle was searched the next day. Hidden in the dash of the vehicle, police found a white tube sock containing four baggies of methamphetamine within a larger zip lock bag.  The methamphetamine totaled 95.53 grams. Police also found a handgun and loaded magazine in the glove box.  Recorded calls between Campos and her sister revealed that Campos planned to get the vehicle out of police impound and recover the methamphetamine before it was discovered by law enforcement.  By the time Campos recovered the vehicle, the police had already located the drugs. Gonzalez later admitted to being involved in the conspiracy for two months as the “enforcer,” who attempted to collect money owed for purchased methamphetamine.

Court records further reveal that on March 6, 2013, a probation search of Campos’s residence revealed a digital scale, two glass methamphetamine pipes, a small amount of methamphetamine, and a drug ledger.

Campos’s sister and co-defendant, Angelica Campos, pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge on October 23, 2013.  She is scheduled to be sentenced in Pocatello on March 17, 2014, by U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart of the District of Utah.

The indictment was the result of an investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which included the cooperative law enforcement efforts of the Idaho State Police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Bonneville County Sheriff's Office, Idaho Falls Police Department, Madison County Sheriff's Office, Rexburg Police Department, Bingham County Sheriff’s Office, Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).  Other federal agencies participating in the OCDETF program include the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service.

The OCDETF program is a federal multi agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.