Duc Vi Huynh, a Canadian citizen, was sentenced yesterday in federal court on charges that he distributed more than 200,000 Ecstasy pills

Duc Vi Huynh, a Canadian citizen, was sentenced yesterday in federal court on charges that he distributed more than 200,000 Ecstasy pills in the Houston area. Authorities believe Huynh took part in a ring that distributed Ecstasy all over the southern U. S. Huynh was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 3,4 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly called Ecstasy or MDMA, with a sentence of 240 months confinement in a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility without parole. Huynh pleaded guilty to the federal drug trafficking offense in November 2008. He has been in custody since his arrest by FBI agents and the Houston Police Department (HPD) officer who jointly investigated the case.In July 2007, acting on a tip from a cooperating witness, FBI agents and HPD officers of the FBI-HPD Asian Organized Crime Task Force stopped a car driven by Khoa Tuan Nguyen and Anh Biet Ngo and discovered approximately 22,000 Ecstasy/MDMA pills. After determining that additional contraband was likely to be hidden in a nearby associated townhouse, agents and officers established surveillance of the townhouse. Numerous people were seen entering and/or leaving the townhouse with suspicious packages. Each person departing the townhouse with a suspicious package was stopped by HPD patrol officers. Each stop resulted in additional arrests as additional amounts of Ecstasy/MDMA were discovered and seized. During that one month, agents recovered approximately 117,000 MDMA pills as part of their task force effort and Huynh was subsequently identified as the person who provided all of the Ecstasy/MDMA pills, which came from Canada, that were intercepted by law enforcement in July 2007.
Shortly after the July 2007 enforcement action, through yet another source of information, Huynh was contacted by telephone to discuss the purchase of an additional 150,000 Ecstasy/MDMA pills for $375,000.00. Huynh agreed to the deal and traveled to Huntsville, Texas on Dec. 21, 2007 for the transaction with an undercover FBI agent. During the meeting, Huynh explained to the agent that the pills were being transported by third parties unknown to him and that he could communicate with them only by calling a telephone number in Canada that was answered by yet another person who acted as a "cutout" to protect the MDMA load and all concerned parties from law enforcement detection. The Ecstasy/MDMA pills never materialized for this deal. Huynh subsequently explained to the agent that the drivers were "sick," meaning had been arrested in another state. Through further investigation, the FBI later learned that Tennessee law enforcement officers had intercepted a vehicle bearing approximately 250,000 MDMA pills during the relevant time-frame. FBI agents believed the intercepted shipment was intended, in part, to fill the order placed by the undercover agent. Through his conversation with the agent, Huynh clearly implicated himself in the conspiracy to supply the MDMA pills intercepted by the FBI in July 2007 and was later arrested.To date, the following seven additional co-conspirators have been charged, convicted and sentenced as a result of the investigation leading to the arrest of Huynh: Dung Hoang Nguyen (156 months), Hoang-Nam Nguyen (68 months), An Biet Ngo (70 months), Toan Bao Nguyen (60 months), Khoa Tuan Nguyen (65 months), Son Anh Nguyen (46 months) and Toan Huu Pham (12 months). Thuc Tri Phan jumped bond after pleading guilty in connection with this conspiracy and remains a fugitive. A warrant remains outstanding for his arrest. All seven are U. S. citizens.The FBI-HPD Asian Organized Crime Task Force is part of an ongoing multi-agency approach to identifying, infiltrating and prosecuting organized crime in the Houston area. Assistant U. S. Attorneys Mark W. White III and Joseph Magliolo are handling the prosecution of these cases.

Jose Carlos "Charlie" Hinojosa, 31, of Roma - who now faces multiple counts of conspiracy, drug smuggling and money laundering in the ongoing case.

Sheriff Reymundo "Rey" Guerra has not been named in the 17-count indictment against more than 10 men and women accused of working with the Gulf Cartel.But a case file partially unsealed last week lists the warrant used to search his office among others described as "related" to the smuggling investigation.Federal authorities would not confirm Thursday whether the sheriff is expected to face any criminal charges in connection with the case or whether he is suspected of any wrongdoing at all.Guerra declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday afternoon.Agents executed a sealed search warrant on Guerra's Rio Grande City office on Sept. 4, taking boxes filled with documents, electronic equipment and photos.Investigators also seized a "gold-colored badge" from a safe under the sheriff's desk and an evidence bag filled with "a green leafy substance" from a drawer in the office, according to the federal receipt drawn up after the seizure.Two days earlier, authorities targeted a residence belonging to Jose Carlos "Charlie" Hinojosa, 31, of Roma - who now faces multiple counts of conspiracy, drug smuggling and money laundering in the ongoing case.Federal prosecutors allege Hinojosa and more than nine associates smuggled more than 2 tons of marijuana and 1,200 pounds of cocaine into the United States. Then, they reportedly helped move nearly half a million dollars in proceeds from narcotics sales back south across the border.Agents took several documents, stacks of cash wrapped in cellophane and magazines of ammunition during their search of Hinojosa's home, court documents state.He was arrested the same day as part of a nationwide sweep of men and women suspected of working with the Gulf Cartel, a Mexican drug trafficking organization that controls smuggling routes from Nuevo Laredo in the west to Matamoros in the east.
U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said during a news conference last week that 175 cartel members and associates - including Hinojosa and his alleged accomplices - had supplied drug markets in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, New York and even Italy.The 15-month investigation - dubbed "Project Reckoning" - involves several separate cases in federal courts across the country.
But nearly all feature links to the Rio Grande Valley because of its status as the Gulf Cartel's primary smuggling corridor, federal investigators said Thursday.
In all, more than 23 Valley residents have been indicted nationwide and several more people are expected to come under prosecutorial scrutiny as the names of several yet unnamed defendants are released.But it remains unclear whether Sheriff Guerra will be one of them.As Starr County's top law enforcement official, he polices a region with one of the highest rates of drug trafficking in the country.He succeeded Eugenio "Gene" Falcon as sheriff in 1998, after Falcon was charged with accepting bribes from a bail bondsman.

Roberto Reynoso, 36, a buyer, agreed to a punishment of 45 years in prison.

Jesus Hinojosa Jr. pleaded guilty in December to two counts of possession of more than 400 grams of cocaine with intent to deliver, prosecutor Marcy McCorvey said.
After reading a pre-sentencing report and hearing testimony in the case,state District Judge Joan Campbell sentenced Hinojosa, 31, to prison with a $1 fine. A fine is mandated by law.
Hinojosa is the last of four men implicated in the scheme to sell more than 26 kilograms of cocaine stolen from the Jersey Village lab.
Last week, Everett Brumfield, 42, was sentenced to 25 years after pleading guilty to engaging in organized criminal activity.
In December, Tommy Norris, 34, pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance in exchange for a 25-year sentence for his part in replacing the narcotics with lookalike bricks.
Roberto Reynoso, 36, a buyer, agreed to a punishment of 45 years in prison.

Willie Mays Aikens

Aikens 20 years for possession of 64 grams of crack To receive an equivalent sentence, he would have had to possess nearly 6 1/2 kilos more than 14 pounds of powder cocaine.a longstanding addiction to cocaine ended his baseball career and ultimately led to a 20-year sentence for selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer. But Willie's story is also a tragic one because it illustrates the unjust sentencing and racial disparities between crack and powder cocaine. After being convicted of attempting to purchase cocaine in 1983, Willie was ultimately suspended from playing major league baseball in the United States. He returned to Kansas City, after playing ball in Mexico, but continued to battle his addiction, which was quickly ruining his personal life as it had done his baseball career.

"You can supply a whole neighborhood with 6 1/2 kilos," Aikens said by telephone from prison, where he is in the 13th year of his sentence.
Activists, lawyers and many federal judges say cases such as Aikens' demonstrate the inequity of cocaine sentencing laws and validate the U.S. Sentencing Commission's recent decision to ease prison time guidelines for crack offenders. The new guidelines will apply retroactively to about 19,500 inmates.
Within hours of the decision, Aikens said he was on the telephone with his lawyers, asking them to request a sentence reduction. They calculated that the new guidelines could shave nearly 2 1/2 years off his sentence.
"The disparity, as far as I'm concerned, is totally wrong," said Aikens, a nonviolent offender. "This took me away from my family. My girls were 4 and 5 years old when I was sentenced. Now they're 18 and 19."
Commissioners said it was highly unlikely that judges would free inmates with a violent past