Two imprisoned on federal drug charges


Published: Wednesday, May. 23, 2007

A Chicago resident and Mexican national man who was in the country illegally, will spend more than 2½ years in federal prison for conspiring with another man to distribute 2 kilograms of cocaine in Nashua.

Aurelio Bonilla, 30, pleaded guilty to the drug trafficking charge in U.S. District Court in Concord in February, admitting that he conspired with Francisco Avalos-Morfin, 39, of Fitchburg, Mass., to distribute the large quantity of cocaine in Nashua in June, officials with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Concord wrote in a statement.

Members of the New England Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force arrested both men June 5 after the men dropped off a plastic bag containing two large bricks of cocaine at a local residence, officials from the office have said.

The two bricks, encased in shrink-wrap, weighed approximately 1,955 grams and had a Nashua street value of about $195,500, police said.

Avalos-Morfin, who was the leader of a Mexican drug ring, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration agent’s affidavit, pleaded guilty in November to a similar charge, as well as a charge of unlawful re-entry after deportation.

In February, U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe sentenced Avalos-Morfin to more than five years in federal prison.

Both Avalos-Morfin’s and Bonilla’s sentences will be followed with probation and ultimately deportation to Mexico, the statement said.

– STEPHANIE HOOPER
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbc ... 99/-1/news