6:57 PM, Sep 20, 2013
C. Johnson
News10/KXTV

SACRAMENTO, CA - Owning a local clothing store wasn't the only occupation of a Lodi resident Manuel Aguilar-Godinez. The U.S. Attorney's Office asserts 38-year-old Aguilar-Godinez also ran a remote Calaveras County methamphetamine lab capable of producing up to 20 pounds of the drug every 24 to 48 hours.

Aguilar-Godinez was sentenced in Sacramento federal court on Friday to 20 years in prison for conspiring to possess pseudoephedrine, a chemical used in making meth. Per court documents, Aguilar-Godinez was involved in the purchase of 34 pounds of pseudoephedrine in Los Angeles on Feb. 20, 2008.

A witness also testified to Aguilar-Godinez hiring men to find him over a drug debt and threatening to shoot him. Another witness corroborated much of the story.

Law enforcement reported seizing two rifles, including an SKS assault rifle, high-capacity magazines, and a .40-caliber pistol at or near the lab when they raided it in August, 2008.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Aguilar-Godinez is one of 51 defendants charged in a 13-month federal investigation with connections to six different states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Alaska, Georgia, and California. Drug seizures occurred in California, Alaska, Illinois, and Georgia. The federal prosecution charged Aguilar-Godinez ran one of the four drug rings federal and state investigators seized in 2008.

Aguilar-Godinez owned and operated La Michoacana Western Wear. The U.S. Attorney's Office said he is a twice-deported, undocumented immigrant.

http://www.news10.net/news/article/2...eth-ring-probe