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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2007

Texas Trucker Sentenced to 7 Years and 3 Months for Trafficking in Cocaine
Largest cocaine seizure in Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement history; Over 51 kilograms of cocaine seized in his tractor trailer; $5,175,000 street value

DEC 4 -- BOWLING GREEN, KY - Humberto Contreras-Carrasco, age 36, of El Paso, Texas, was sentenced to 7 years and 3 months imprisonment in United States District Court, Bowling Green, Kentucky, for conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, U.S. Attorney David L. Huber of the Western District of Kentucky announced today. Joseph H. McKinley, Jr., Judge, United States District Court, also sentenced Contreras-Carrasco to 3 years supervised release following incarceration. There is no parole in the federal judicial system. According to the Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement, this was the largest cocaine seizure ever made by their office.

U.S. Attorney Huber praised the Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement in “their continued police actions against illegal drug shipments. They are an essential local partner in the policing of a major north-south commercial artery.”

On August 3, 2007, Contreras-Carrasco pled guilty to the two count indictment and admitted his involvement with transporting over 51 kilograms of cocaine from El Paso, Texas to Kentucky, where he was arrested. Specifically, on March 26, 2007, Contreras-Carrasco and co-defendant Francisco De La Cruz-Navarro, were driving a tractor trailer carrying 51.75 kilograms of cocaine on I-65 in Simpson County Kentucky, when they were stopped for speeding by a Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement Officer.

Upon stopping the tractor trailer, the KVE Officer approached the tractor trailer and identified De La Cruz-Navarro as the driver and Contreras-Carrasco as the passenger. It was then learned that both De La Cruz-Navarro and Contreras-Carrasco had picked up the trailer in El Paso, Texas and were on their way to Columbus, Ohio. A subsequent search of the contents of the tractor trailer uncovered three duffel bags containing 51.75 kilograms of cocaine. During his plea, Contreras-Carrasco admitted that he and De La Cruz-Navarro conspired and aided and abetted each other to transport the cocaine.

De La Cruz-Navarro, an illegal alien, pled guilty on October 18, 2007, and is scheduled to be sentenced on January 22, 2008, at 9:00 a.m., in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel P. Kinnicutt, and it was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement.

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