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United States Attorney's Office for the District of Montana CONTACT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Missoula on March 5, 2008, before U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, COSME SANCHEZ-ESPINO, a 25-year-old resident of Oregon, pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Sentencing is set for July 2, 2008. He is currently detained.
In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
Between April of 2006, and continuing through July of 2007, SANCHEZ-ESPINO, Marvin Mullen, Marlena Harringer, and Edmund Paul Vaisvilas were involved in a conspiracy with several other individuals to distribute over 500 grams of methamphetamine in Meagher, Mineral, Lewis and Clark, and Gallatin counties.
Mullen, Harringer, and Vaisvilas pled to federal charges and are awaiting sentencing.
SANCHEZ-ESPINO faces possible penalties of a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and could be sentenced to life, a $4,000,000 fine and 5 years supervised release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paulette L. Stewart prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Bozeman and Helena Missouri River Drug Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Meagher County Sheriff's Office, the Mineral County Sheriff's Office, the Montana Highway Patrol, and the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office in California.