Las Vegas, Nev. - Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada, announced that Carlos Cabrera was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Roger L. Hunt to 160 months in federal prison. Carlos Cabrera, 55, of Las Vegas, was convicted by a jury in January of this year of three counts of distribution of crack cocaine and one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. Cabrera had originally been tried and convicted in October 1998 in a trial before U.S. District Court Judge Johnnie Rawlinson. In March 1999, Judge Rawlinson sentenced the defendant to 160 months in federal prison, but on August 24, 2000, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the conviction and remanded the case back to the District Court in Las Vegas for a new trial, finding that the defendant had been deprived of his due process and equal protection rights because one of the law enforcement witnesses had made references to Cabrera's Cuban ethnicity. At the new trial in January 2002, the evidence of the defendant's drug dealing once more proved sufficient to sustain a conviction. The evidence introduced established that Cabrera distributed crack cocaine to an undercover North Las Vegas Police Detective on three instances: the first on September 24, 1997, involving 7.92 grams; the second on September 25, 1997, involving 30.2 grams; and the third, on September 27, 1997, involving 115.22 grams. All three drug transactions were recorded on audio tape.

Cabrera was arrested by FBI agents in Las Vegas on September 30, 1997, and has been in custody since that time. Cabrera was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release following his release from prison.

The prosecution and conviction of Mr. Cabrera is the result of an investigation by agents of the FBI and detectives of the North Las Vegas Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matt Parrella and Karyn Kenny.

 

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