Drug dealer sentenced to 15 years

LITTLE ROCK — A North Little Rock man arrested with about a half-pound of methamphetamine after being caught during a sting operation set up using Facebook has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for drug dealing.

Amador Evangelista-Mora, 33, pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine with purpose to deliver, reduced from Class Y felony drug trafficking, in exchange for the 15-year term imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright, sentencing papers filed Saturday show.

Evangelista-Mora has been jailed since sheriff’s deputies found 265 grams of meth, about 9.3 ounces, wrapped in a grocery bag in a drinking cup in Evangelista-Mora’s Chevrolet S-10, court filings show.

His arrest came a day after deputies got a tip someone calling himself Kukin Aguirre on Facebook claimed to have “kilos” of meth to sell. Investigators contacted the man using the social media service and arranged to purchase drugs from him at the Goodwill outlet store on Scott Hamilton Drive in Little Rock.

A few minutes later, another man called back and said to meet him at the Walgreen’s because his S-10 pickup had broken down. Undercover officers arrived and found a gray S-10 parked near the store with a man, whom they later identified as Evangelista-Mora, sitting on a nearby curb.

After a search of the truck turned up the drugs, he said something about a “boss” telling him to deliver a “package” to someone at the Walgreen’s, according to an arrest report.