August 12, 2020
By: Staff Report
FROSTPROOF, Fla.- U.S. District Judge Mary S. Scriven, on Tuesday, sentenced Mario Alberto Rivas. 50, Frostproof, to 10 years in federal prison for conspiring with others to possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine.
Rivas had pleaded guilty on February 18, 2020.
According to court documents, Rivas traveled from Florida to Houston, Texas to pick up approximately four kilograms of methamphetamine from a co-conspirator. After picking up the methamphetamine, Rivas traveled back to Florida to deliver the drugs to additional co-conspirators in the Polk County area. While Rivas was on the way to deliver the drugs, law enforcement officers stopped his vehicle and seized the methamphetamine.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Lake Wales Police Department, and the Florida Highway Patrol. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Callan L. Albritton.
This investigation is the result of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s drug supply.
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