Man avoids additional jail time for meth smuggling conspiracy

A 56-year-old man avoided incarceration for his role in a plot to smuggle 26 pounds of methamphetamine to the Bay Area from Mexico, court records show.

Mark Ogo pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. In a Jan. 17 judgement, U.S. District Judge William Orrick sentenced him to time already served. Prosecutors had asked for an 87-month prison sentence.

Ogo spent about a week in jail after his arrest in February 2021, court records show. He will have to be on supervised release for four years.

Ogo's co-defendant, William Riedy, 59, was sentenced by a different judge to 54 months for his role in the same drug-smuggling conspiracy last October. Charges still are pending against a third defendant, Anthony Christian Valdovinos.

In a defense sentencing memo, Ogo's attorney said that at the time of the crime Ogo was severely addicted to methamphetamine and was “not fully realizing what a terrible mistake of judgment he was making.” He said Ogo performed well while on pretrial supervision and that he had a rough childhood.

Prosecutors conceded Ogo has made improvements in his life and is now stably employed, but argued for the lengthy prison term to “avoid unwanted disparities” between Ogo's sentence and the prison term that Riedy received.

Prosecutors say Riedy sneaked the drugs into the United States and passed them off to Ogo and Valdovinos, but not before making one more quick trip to Mexico and back to get Viagra for Ogo. The duo then took the Viagra from Calexico to the San Mateo area, where they retrieved the methamphetamine from a tire.

“We did it! Or I should say Chris did it. He came up with the idea of slicing the tire from the round and not across and it worked!” Ogo allegedly texted Riedy after the trip up north was completed.