16-Year Old Female Found with 49 Pounds of Cocaine to be Prosecuted Under Special Court Proceeding
El Paso County Attorney José R.
Rodríguez announced today that he has received grand jury approval to seek a
determinate sentence for a 16-year-old girl caught attempting to bring into the
U.S.
more than 49 pounds of cocaine.
According
to official documents, on August 28, 2006 an officer with the U.S. Customs and
Border Protection assigned to the Ysleta Port of Entry found 49.2 pounds of
cocaine in a hidden compartment of a white 1997 Chrysler Sebring after being
alerted by a K-9 officer. The 16-year-old was enrolled as a student in the
Ysleta School District at the time of her arrest, and has been held in custody
at the Juvenile Probation Department since August 28.
Instead
of prosecuting the case through the "normal" juvenile process, County Attorney
José Rodríguez decided to proceed under the Texas Determinate Sentencing Statute,
to seek a tougher sentence against the juvenile.
Rodriguez
explained that the Determinate Sentencing Statute is a state law that allows
for the possibility of a more severe punishment for a juvenile adjudicated of
certain types of serious crimes, including felony drug charges. Under the
statue, the juvenile faces the possibility of a sentence of up to 40 years in juvenile
detention facilities and in adult prison.
Even
though the juvenile had no prior criminal history, Rodríguez cited the
excessively large amount of cocaine found in the juvenile's possession as the
reason for prosecuting the case under the determinate sentencing statue. The
street value of the cocaine is estimated between $280,000 and $700,000.
"We
are concerned about the drug cartels using teens to try to bring drugs into our
community. For a number of years this has been a recurring problem in El Paso, especially
because some teenagers believe nothing serious is going to happen to them if
they ever get caught," said José Rodríguez.
"Proceeding
under Determinate Sentencing Statute in this case demonstrates that we will not
tolerate these types of crimes, and should serve as a warning to those teens
who might be tempted by the money being offered by the drug cartels", explained
Rodríguez.
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County Attorney José Rodríguez will be available for interviews today. To make further
arrangements please call Elhiu Dominguez
at 546-2016.
Determinate Sentencing Case Press Release.pdf