4:01 PM, Oct 15, 2012

Written by
Kylie Kolz
The Tennessean

One of the two illegal immigrants indicted in a 70-kilo, $2.25 million cocaine distribution case was sentenced on Monday to six years in prison and to be deported back to Mexico after that.

Sergio Barraza-Pinera, 32, had negotiated a plea of guilty to possession of 5 kilograms of cocaine with intent to distribute, and said his drug activities were to pay debts associated with his illegal immigration across the border. U.S. District Court Judge Kevin H. Sharp said the defendant has three children in Mexico and one in California.

“Let me get back to my children and I will not come back to the United States,” Barraza-Pinera said.

His co-defendant, Daniel Varajas, has also pleaded guilty, but has yet to be sentenced.

The two were arrested by DEA agents in August 2011 after being observed in the back of a tractor-trailer truck loading one-kilo bricks of cocaine into duffle bags. The DEA agents counted 70 such bricks.

The agents also discovered about $200,000 in cash and a firearm in a subsequent search in Varajas’ residence.

According to the indictment, drug agents followed the two men from the residence to a meeting with the truck driver at a Pilot truck stop on Centennial Blvd. in West Nashville. Then the truck was driven to a gravel road near the 3000 block of Charlotte Ave., where it was unloaded of its cocaine cargo and the two men were arrested.

According to Michael Stanfill, DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge in Nashville, cocaine has a street value of about $32,000 a kilo.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Little said there is no public record of any legal action taken against the truck driver.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20...rs-deportation