An Ontario man arrested in what Riverside County sheriff’s officials described as the largest marijuana seizure in county history has been sentenced to 5 ½ years in federal prison, authorities said.
Angel Guillen Raya, 51, pleaded guilty in January to transporting about 14 tons of marijuana with the intent to distribute it, federal court records show. He was sentenced Monday in federal court in Riverside. His prison term will be followed by five years of supervised release, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Guillen Raya was pulled over Aug. 26 on Interstate 15 south of Temecula driving a big rig stuffed with bundles of marijuana, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. According to the plea deal with the U.S. attorney’s office, Guillen Raya had agreed to haul 28,000 pounds of marijuana from San Diego County to San Bernardino County in exchange for $10,000.
Guillen Raya admitted he had been driving similar loads of marijuana for at least three months before his arrest, but the court documents do not specify how many trips he made.
A Riverside County sheriff’s deputy pulled Guillen Raya over for making an unsafe lane change, sheriff’s officials said at the time. A few minutes later, another deputy arrived with a drug-sniffing dog that “alerted” deputies to the presence of drugs in the truck, court records show.
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