{"id":14721,"date":"2015-08-17T13:35:20","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T20:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14721"},"modified":"2015-08-17T13:45:20","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T20:45:20","slug":"narco-trafficker-with-more-than-20-criminal-convictions-sentenced-to-20-years-in-federal-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14721","title":{"rendered":"Narco-Trafficker with More than 20 Criminal Convictions Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

A federal judge today sentenced a narcotics trafficker to 20 years in prison after law enforcement seized more than 170 pounds of cocaine and $1.5 million in drug profits, officials said.<\/p>\n

\"Federal<\/a>District Judge George H. Wu<\/strong>\u00a0sentenced\u00a0 Zaid Wakil<\/strong>, 43, of Winston Salem, North Carolina, for his drug trafficking activities in which he received cocaine from Los Angeles-area traffickers for distribution on the East Coast.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors said Wakil had 20 prior criminal convictions over the course of more than two decades on charges that included drug trafficking, forgery and burglary.<\/p>\n

Wakil was one of 22 defendants charged in June 2012 in two grand jury indictments with participating in a large-scale conspiracy to traffic cocaine, officials said.<\/p>\n

Officials said the conspiracy involved a drug-trafficking partnership between operatives in Mexico, Canada and the United States.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors noted in their sentencing memorandum that Wakil \u00a0\u201cparticipated in an extensive scheme to traffic in extraordinary quantities of cocaine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a jury trial in February at which Wakil represented himself, he was found guilty of participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy and three counts of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute.<\/p>\n

The three narcotics-possession counts were the result of three seizures between May and July of 2011 in which more than 170 pounds of cocaine was seized.<\/p>\n

Authorities in Arizona and seized nearly 70 pounds during two traffic stops, and investigators were able to intercept a 105-pound shipment that Wakil attempted to send to the East Coast via FedEx.<\/p>\n

The first cocaine seizure in this case came during a May 2011 traffic stop of Wakil\u2019s car in Flagstaff, Arizona by officers with the Arizona Department of Public Safety,<\/strong> according to authorities.<\/p>\n

After narco-trafficker was released from custody less than two months later, Wakil then contacted his Los Angeles-based supplier and stated that he was \u201cstill moving,\u201d despite the law enforcement seizures of his drugs and money.<\/p>\n

\"Justice<\/a>According to wiretapped phone calls played at his trial, Wakil told his supplier at that time: \u201cLet\u2019s make the profits bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wakil engaged in \u201csophisticated means to conceal his activities,\u201d according to prosecutors, who noted that he operated a \u201cshell business\u201d in Santa Clarita \u2013 a purported trucking company that he used to conceal his cocaine shipments and to make his drug proceeds appear to be legitimate.<\/p>\n

In 2010 and 2011, law enforcement in the San Fernando Valley, Ohio and Maryland made three seizures of cash totaling more than $1.5 million from vehicles that Wakil was driving.<\/p>\n

\u201c[O]n each occasion, a trained narcotics detection canine gave a positive alert on the seized money,\u201d according to the government\u2019s sentencing brief.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Money<\/a>Wakil was one of 22 defendants charged in June 2012 in two grand jury indictments with participating in a large-scale conspiracy to traffic cocaine.<\/p>\n

The conspiracy involved a drug-trafficking partnership between operatives in Mexico, Canada and the United States.<\/p>\n

Fourteen of the 22 defendants named in those indictments have been convicted.<\/p>\n

Both of the Los Angeles-based leaders of the conspiracy \u2013 Ichiro Tomatani-Guzman<\/strong> and Eduardo Olivares<\/strong> \u2013 pleaded guilty and each received 10-year prison terms. The leader of the Canadian nexus of the conspiracy \u2013 John Darrell Krokos<\/strong> \u2013 pleaded guilty and received more than 11 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Eight of the defendants charged in this case remain fugitives.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are:<\/strong><\/p>\n