Man gets prison time over meth in cooler
He faces deportation after term served
A man who was stopped in 2019 for speeding in Saline County and was found to have a cooler containing more than 3 pounds of methamphetamine was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 4½ years in prison and two years of supervised release.
Enrique Perez-Rios, 27, pleaded guilty in August before Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. to one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver in exchange for the government dropping a narcotics conspiracy count he was also facing.
Marshall noted that Perez-Rios, a native of Mexico who is in the country illegally, will most likely be deported upon his release from prison.
According to an agreement, Perez-Rios pleaded guilty to possession of 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, or 3.3 pounds of the drug. Court documents said he was transporting the meth from Dallas to Russellville when he was stopped by a Benton police officer who found the drugs.
After a brief investigation led by federal officials, police arrested Perez-Rios on drug charges and a co-defendant, Luis Edwardo Alvidrez, on drug and firearms charges.
Alvidrez pleaded guilty in
November to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in exchange for the government dismissing one narcotics conspiracy count and one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 6.
Perez-Rios’ sentence was well below the guideline recommendation prepared by the U.S. Probation Office, which called for a range of 70 to 87 months in prison, and it was less than half the minimum statutory sentence of 10 years that Perez-Rios could have faced.
Perez-Rios’ attorney, Robert Golden of Little Rock, argued for leniency, pointing out that his client had not made any attempt to mislead investigators or to minimize his role in the incident.
“Mr. Perez-Rios has fully accepted responsibility and did it very early on,” Golden said, adding that his client was aware of his likely deportation after he is released. Golden said that with Perez-Rios having family still in Mexico, he will have a support system once he is released from prison.
“He knows he’s going to serve time,” Golden added. “He’s just hoping for that time to be as short as possible, obviously, as any defendant would, so he’s asking for a low-end guideline sentence and any mercy the court sees fit to bestow on him.”
Before announcing the sentence, Marshall said the defendant’s lack of criminal history and his admission of responsibility for the crime, along with the facts that he did not attempt to evade investigators’ questions and that there was no violence in connection with the incident, made the guideline range seem excessive.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Peters, who said the government supported a sentence at the bottom end of the sentencing range, told the judge that the amount of methamphetamine involved was the primary factor in determining that range.
“I think he gets credit for being candid with the agents and accepting responsibility from the get-go,” Peters said. “We have limited information about his background, but based on what we know, it’s fair to recommend the low end of the guideline sentence.”
Before his sentencing, Perez-Rios, through a court interpreter, said he hoped to be able to return home to his family soon.
“I accept I am responsible for what I did, and that is why I am paying the consequences,” he said. “It has been very hard to be in jail away from my family.”
“All material things considered, I believe the guideline range is too harsh of a sentence in this case,” Marshall said. “It is certainly true that the drug trade could not operate without mules — people who carry the drugs. On the other hand, they are at the margin of the whole operation, and the sentence should take that into account.”
After the sentencing, the judge cautioned Perez-Rios about reentering the country illegally and told him that doing so while he is serving his supervised release could expose him to additional jail time for violating the terms.