Mexican national sentenced to more than 17 years for meth distribution

POCATELLO, Idaho — A 29-year-old Mexican national was sentenced Monday to 210 months in federal prison for distribution of methamphetamine, following an investigation by the Idaho Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Juan Ramon Yuen-Rodriguez, of Sinaloa, Mexico, pleaded guilty to the charge in May. According to the plea agreement, Yuen-Rodriguez and co-defendant Jose Felix-Burgos were stopped by law enforcement in August 2013 while driving to deliver methamphetamine to an undercover officer acting as a buyer in Heyburn, Idaho. In a box in the back seat of the vehicle officers found more than 2 kilograms of actual methamphetamine.

The case was the result of a joint investigation of the OCDETF, which includes HSI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Canyon County Narcotics Unit, the Meridian Police Department, the Ada County Sheriff's Office, the Idaho State Police, and the Mini-Cassia Drug Task Force.

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