BOISE, Idaho — Two men from Idaho Falls face more than two decades in federal prison for trafficking methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill this week sentenced Ernestine Delafuente to 25 years and nine months in prison, and Simon Martinez to 22 years in prison, for "large-scale methamphetamine trafficking" in eastern Idaho between January 2020 and December 2020.
The Department of Justice on Friday said Delafuente led and supplied the drug-trafficking operation by collecting "hundreds of pounds" of meth and other substances from California.
In December 2020, law enforcement found more than 56 pounds of methamphetamine and roughly 12,000 fentanyl pills at a storage unit in Idaho Falls.
Investigators identified Martinez as another leader in the drug-trafficking organization, working under Delafuente. The two were sentenced for possession with the intent to distribute.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Idaho State Police, Idaho Falls Police Department, Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office, Pocatello Police Department, Power County Sheriff’s Office, Bannock County Sheriff’s Office, Bingham County Sheriff’s Office, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) worked on the investigation.
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