Three Defendants Sentenced In The District Court Of Guam

ALICIA A.G. LIMTIACO, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, announced that three more defendants who were witnesses in the U.S. v. Mateo B. Sardoma, Jr. aka “Mat”, Rudy P.H. Sablan, Maria C. Edrosa aka “Cristina”, et al. trial were sentenced this week by Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, as follows:

1. Defendant CORY LEE BOND, age 27, was sentenced on July 1, 2014, to a sentence of time served, and followed by three years of supervised release.  Defendant BOND pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846.  Defendant BOND had assisted co-defendant Brian San Agustin in shipping methamphetamine to Guam for Defendant Mateo B. Sardoma, Jr.

2. Defendant BENNY BENAVIDEZ, age 33, was sentenced on July 2, 2014, to time served and five years of supervised release.  Defendant BENAVIDEZ pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine in relation to the two Express Mail Packages he had received, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846.

3. Defendant DEBORAH ARBES, age 49, was sentenced on July 3, 2014, to 36 months imprisonment and five years of supervised release.  Defendant ARBES pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846. ARBES testified she was a user and sold methamphetamine on Guam.  ARBES also received a shipment of methamphetamine on behalf of Defendant Mateo B. Sardoma, Jr.

U.S. Attorney Limtiaco stated, “Our community is not immune from the poison of methamphetamine.  These cases illustrate the hard work our partners in law enforcement do every day to stop the distribution of methamphetamine into Guam.”  These three defendants were witnesses in the U.S. v. Mateo B. Sardoma, Jr. aka “Mat”, Rudy P.H. Sablan, Maria C. Edrosa aka “Cristina”, et al., which is the product of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a focused multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force investigating and prosecuting the most significant drug trafficking organizations throughout the United States by leveraging the combined expertise of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

The investigations were conducted by Special Agents and Task Force Officers at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (DHS-HSI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).  The cases against Defendants BOND and BENAVIDEZ were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Clyde Lemons.  The case against Defendant ARBES was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Black.