United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

FEDERAL JUDGE SENTENCES COCAINE TRAFFICKING
RING LEADER TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT
THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE

LUBBOCK, Texas — A leader of a major cocaine-trafficking organization operating in the Lubbock area was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. On July 3, 2007, a federal jury found Alex Romo Rios, 47, of Lubbock, guilty of three drug trafficking crimes following a two-day trial. Specifically, Rios was convicted of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, distribution and possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, and possession with intent to distribute less than 50 kilograms of marijuana. The United States had previously filed an information regarding notice of sentencing enhancement, which the district court found to be true and resulted in a mandatory life sentence for Rios as to counts one and eight of the superseding indictment.

Rios, along with two co-defendants Wovencelado Tijerina, 60, of Tahoka, Texas, and Noel Peralez Tijerina, 41, of Lubbock, were arrested in mid-April in an early morning enforcement action by agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other law enforcement organizations. These three defendants, along with Scott Garza, 26, and Juan Antonio Benitez, Jr., 45, both of Lubbock, and Eusebio Miramontez, 55, of Abilene, Texas, are all charged in the 21-count indictment. All five of Rios’s co-defendants have entered guilty pleas to various charges. Defendants Garza, Noel Tijerina, and Wovencelado Tijerina are set for sentencing on October 30, 2007. No sentencing date has yet been scheduled for Benitez or Miramontez.

The government presented evidence at trial that beginning in 2004, Rios conspired with others to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. The evidence presented at trial showed that Rios and co-conspirator Noel Tijerina combined to distribute approximately 150 kilograms of cocaine in the Lubbock area from September 2005 through September 2006. The evidence also showed that Rios and another co-conspirator not named in the indictment formed a partnership to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine in February 2006 after federal, state, and local authorities had incarcerated a large number of the crack cocaine distributors in Lubbock. Rios and this individual distributed approximately 100-150 kilograms of cocaine in the Lubbock area from February 2006 through October 2006. Testimony at trial also showed the Rios had ties to various narcotics traffickers in Mexico who supplied him with cocaine.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the excellent investigative efforts of the DEA, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations Division, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office, the Lubbock Police Department, the Plainview Police Department, the Hale County Sheriff’s Department, the Lynn County Sheriff’s Department, the Tahoka Police Department, and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey R. Haag and Denise B. Williams of the Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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