FRESNO -  Oscar Ivan Salazar-Avalos (Salazar), 29, a citizen of Mexico, was sentenced today to six years and nine months in prison for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced. 

Salazar’s sentence follows his guilty plea last November.  According to court documents, Salazar and co-defendant Jose Manuel Sotelo-Mendoza, 26, of Ceres, delivered 15 pounds of methamphetamine to an undercover officer in Delano after Salazar negotiated with the officer for the delivery of the drug for $3,400 per pound for a total of $51,000. Salazar and Sotelo met the source of supply in Castaic in the northern part of Los Angeles County to obtain the methamphetamine. 

Sotelo pleaded guilty on February 19.  He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 20.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, consisting of law enforcement officers of Homeland Security Investigations, California Highway Patrol, Bureau of Investigation of the California Department of Justice, Fresno Police Department, and Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.