Illegal alien brothers plead guilty to Reading drug operation
By Holly Herman
Reading Eagle

5/1/2008 11:33:00 PM

Two brothers who are illegal aliens from Mexico pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Reading to running a large-scale marijuana and cocaine operation in their former home in the 200 block of West Green Street.

Cuauhtemoc Solorio-Rojas, 42, and Leone Solorio-Rojas, 38, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Golden to conspiring to deliver marijuana and cocaine and to wea pon offenses.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri A. Stephan said both face mandatory 10-year prison sentences.

Cuauhtemoc Solorio-Rojas told investigators he worked at a chicken plant in Fredericksburg, Lebanon County. His bro ther said he worked at a mushroom farm in Temple.

Golden told them they would be deported after serving their prison terms. Sentencing is scheduled for July.

Police said the pair resided in Reading for two years before being tracked down with help from a fugitive task force from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Agents found drugs and guns in their home April 4, 2007, while arresting them for deportation, Stephan said.

Police said they seized 61/2 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $10,000, 54 grams of cocaine with a street value $2,000, five guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and about $72,000.

Police described the brothers as high-level drug dealers.

Cuauhtemoc Solorio-Rojas’ lawyer, Allan L. Sodomsky of Reading, and Leone Solorio-Rojas’s lawyer, Carlos A. Martir of Philadelphia, said their clients cooperated with authorities.

The brothers were returned to an undisclosed federal prison to await sentencing.

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