An Atlantic City man who admitted to distributing more than 50 grams of crystal methamphetamine in Atlantic County was sentenced to 108 months in Camden U.S. District Court Tuesday.
Ignacio Cuesta, 42, was arrested June 24, 2016, after he agreed to sell two pounds of crystal meth to a person in Hammonton who turned out to be an undercover narcotics detective, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Investigators seized the drugs from Cuesta's Ford Expedition along with about $9,000 in cash.
Several additional pounds of crystal meth were found hidden in vehicles and buried in a bucket in the ground in a parking lot for a local business in Hammonton, Carpenito said.
Law enforcement officers also recovered additional cash inside the trunk of a vehicle owned and used by Cuesta, which was parked in the same parking lot in Hammonton.
More than $100,000 was seized.
Upon completion of his nine-year term, Cuesta will have five years of supervised release.
He also agreed to forfeit all of the cash and two vehicles that were seized on the day of the arrest.
Carpenito credited special agents with the Drug Enforcement Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Valerie A. Nickerson in Newark, with the investigation. He also thanked the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Mary Eva Colalillo, for its assistance.
