Biden grants clemency to man who funneled drugs into state

President Joe Biden on Tuesday shortened the prison sentence of a California man who funneled drugs into Colorado.

Paul Hernandez Contreras, 50, was sentenced to nine years in prison on federal drug trafficking charges in 2019, but will now be released to home confinement on April 26, 2023, after Biden granted him clemency.

He will serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement, and then will serve a three-year term of supervised release, according to the Department of Justice.

Biden granted clemency to 75 people on Tuesday, with most receiving shortened sentences and three people receiving pardons. Contreras is the only person convicted in Colorado to receive clemency.

Contreras, of Perris, Calif., was arrested in 2017 after an in-depth investigation by a Drug Enforcement Administration task force on the Western Slope, court records show.

Investigators used phone taps and a stakeout to track Contreras as he drove just over 10 pounds of methamphetamine and a half-pound of cocaine from California into Rifle in January 2017, where he left the drugs in a storage locker.

Contreras’ arrest was part of a larger sting that resulted in drug trafficking convictions for at least nine people. Contreras pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine. Several other counts against him were dismissed as part of the plea, and prosecutors agreed not to seek an enhanced prison sentence.

“America is a nation of laws and second chances, redemption, and rehabilitation,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday. “… helping those who served their time return to their families and become contributing members of their communities is one of the most effective ways to reduce recidivism and decrease crime.”

A call to an attorney who represented Contreras in the trafficking case was not immediately returned Tuesday.