FORT SMITH – A Redlands, California man was sentenced today to 121 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release on one count of Possession with the Intent to Distribute Heroin. The Honorable Judge P.K. Holmes, III, presided over the sentencing hearing in the United States District Court in Fort Smith.
According to court documents, on January 22, 2022, a trooper with the Arkansas State Police stopped Pedro Armando Nava, Jr., age 34, for operating a vehicle with an expired registration sticker on the license plate. The stop occurred on Interstate 40 in Crawford County, Arkansas. Upon making contact with the two occupants of the vehicle, the trooper detected the odor of marijuana emitting from the vehicle.
The trooper spoke with the occupants of the vehicle separately and obtained conflicting information regarding their travels.
After Nava admitted to having a marijuana joint in the vehicle, a search was conducted. The search resulted in troopers locating and seizing one (1) marijuana joint and four (4) suitcases containing eight (8) packages of narcotics.
All eight (8) packages were sent to the Drug Enforcement Adminiatration (DEA) crime lab for further testing. The DEA crime lab found the following substances and amounts: 7,451 grams of heroin and 3,016.3 grams of cocaine.
U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes of the Western District of Arkansas made the announcement.
The Arkansas State Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Still prosecuted the case.