Man gets prison time in drug sale case
A handcuffed Adrian Humberto Alvarez was immediately taken into custody Wednesday morning after a Yuma County Superior Court judge sentenced him to three-and-a-half years in prison for a modified count of attempted transportation of marijuana for sale.
Alvarez pleaded guilty to the offense as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors in early August. In return for his plea, the original charges of two counts of transportation of marijuana for sale and one count of a narcotic drug for sale, were dismissed.
One count of possession of drug paraphernalia and one count of child endangerment were also dismissed under the terms of the plea agreement. Superior Court Judge Brandon Kinsey, who sentenced Alvarez, also gave him credit for five days that he had already served in custody.
Prior to his client’s sentencing attorney Micheal Donovan, who represents Alvarez, asked Kinsey if he had considered any of the factors presented during a mitigation hearing in September, in which he presented evidence that his client had a clean record since his arrest. Kinsey explained that the prison sentence had been agreed upon in the plea offer, and not following it would give the prosecution grounds to withdraw from it. If that were to happen, he continued, the case would proceed to trial, where Alvarez would potentially face a much longer sentence.
The crime of attempted transportation of marijuana carries a prison sentencing ranging from two and a half to seven years in prison with the presumptive sentence being the three-and-a-half years Alvarez received as part of his plea deal.
According to the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office, the Yuma County Narcotics Task Force (YCNTF) served a search warrant in October 2017 at a residence in the 2000 block of South 7th Avenue.
When YCNTF members searched the house, with assistance from YCSO K-9 Jax, they found approximately 12.32 pounds of marijuana, which had an estimated street value of more than $167,000, and 3.55 pounds of marijuana edibles, with an estimated value of $32,168.
YCNTF members also recovered 28.8 grams of THC wax worth an estimated $1,440, as well as 46 grams of THC oil, worth an estimated $2,300, and additional drug paraphernalia items consistent with narcotic sales. A loaded shotgun was also discovered. During the investigation, task force members learned that Alvarez, who was the suspect of the search warrant, had allegedly been shipping boxes of bulk marijuana and THC oils and waxes to other states throughout the country.