United States Drug Enforcement Administration

(FORT WORTH, - Texas - A defendant who pleaded guilty this summer to an indictment charging one count of distribution of methamphetamine, was sentenced on Friday by U.S. District Judge John McBryde to 360 months in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Jose Milton Puentes, 34, was arrested in May 2015 in the Los Angeles area on the indictment filed in the Northern District of Texas.  He made his initial appearance in federal court in Los Angeles and was released on bond.  After he entered his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth on July 17, 2015, Judge McBryde remanded him into federal custody.

According to documents filed in the case, on April 4, 2013, Puentes shipped, or caused to be shipped, approximately one pound of methamphetamine from California to Fort Worth via UPS.  The methamphetamine arrived the following day, and the Drug Enforcement (DEA) intercepted it.

The DEA investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith prosecuted it.