PEORIA, Ill. – A 41-year-old man who trafficked ice methamphetamine to Central Illinois will spend the next 27 years in federal prison.
That’s the sentence Gabriel Antonio Montano-Rodriquez received in the Central District of Illinois on January 13th. He will also have five years of supervised release after the prison sentence.
Evidence was presented at Montano-Rodriquez’s sentencing hearing that he operated mainly out of Arizona and would traffic meth and heroin to the Peoria area that he obtained from the United States southern border. He then used a network of local drug dealers to sell the meth and heroin.
Montano-Rodriquez was also living in the United States illegally and had been deported four times previously.
Authorities say that Montano-Rodriquez, at minimum, trafficked over 23 pounds of meth and 6 pounds of heroin to central Illinois area. During one trip, he brought 15 pounds of meth to sell.
Montano-Rodriguez’s prior convictions were also presented at the sentencing hearing. Those convictions include illegal reentry, transportation of undocumented immigrants, and a federal marijuana conspiracy.
Judge James Shadid said at the hearing that the long sentence was needed because prior convictions and deportations had not deterred Montano-Rodriquez from continued criminal conduct.
