Mexican national sentenced in meth trafficking

A man charged with two counts of trafficking methamphetamine into Pahrump earlier this year was fined $20,000 and sentenced to maximum of 14-and-a-half years in prison this week in District Court.

Roque Lara-Aguilar, aka Jorge Garcia or Rocky, 34, appeared in District Court Thursday morning to be sentenced on two cases, each of which charged him with a single count of trafficking a schedule one controlled substance, mid level, 14 to 28 grams of methamphetamine.

Lara-Aguilar was charged in the two cases after police found more than 100 grams of methamphetamine in his possession during a traffic stop in January.

According to police, narcotics detectives had initially begun an investigation into Lara-Aguilar after they began to suspect he was supplying methamphetamine to several well-known meth dealers in Pahrump.

On Jan. 23, a confidential informant reportedly told police Lara-Aguilar was possibly on his way into Pahrump with a large amount of narcotics in his vehicle. Officers were subsequently able to set up a traffic stop with the suspect, at which time he was stopped and detained for questioning.

After police obtained a warrant to search Lara-Aguilar’s vehicle, a narcotics detective reportedly found 13 individually packaged bags of meth inside, ranging in size from 1 ounce, or 28 grams, to an 8-ball, or 3.5 grams. Altogether police reportedly discovered approximately 105 grams, or one-fourth of a pound, of methamphetamine inside the man’s vehicle.

Police also reportedly found Lara-Aguilar’s cell phone during their search, which contained the numbers of many known Pahrump meth dealers such as “Andrea.”

Lara-Aguilar, who was in the country illegally, was arrested and remained in custody on $25,000 bail until his sentencing this week.

Judge Kimberly Wanker told the man despite his lack of prior criminal history and the fact he would be deported at the end of his incarceration no matter what sentence she gave him, she was going to hold him accountable for his actions in Nye County.

“Let me tell you something, you brought enough drugs into Nye County to place a number of people at risk. So you even if you didn’t commit immediate murder, it doesn’t mean that those drugs you brought in couldn’t have resulted in significant harm or damage to the folks who received those drugs. And you did it more than once, you did it repeatedly,” the judge said. “So let me tell you, you made a lifestyle choice and I will hold you accountable for it and I want you to understand that.”

Wanker subsequently sentenced Lara-Aguilar in one case to a $10,000 fine and 36 to 90 months in prison, with credit for 211 days already served. She then sentenced him in the second case to 28 to 84 months in prison with an additional $10,000 set to run consecutively to the first case, meaning he will have to serve his time on the first charge before he can begin serving time on the second.

After he finishes serving his sentence in a Nevada State Prison, he will be deported back to Mexico.