California Woman Sentenced to Nearly Four Years in Federal Prison for Trafficking Methamphetamine in Rhode Island

PROVIDENCE, RI - A Mexican national who, at the direction of an individual incarcerated in a Maine prison, participated in the delivery of four pounds of methamphetamine to a courier who drove to Rhode Island from Maine to take possession of the drugs, has been sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison, announced United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha.

According to court documents, while under law enforcement surveillance in Rhode Island on June 6, 2022, Nora Cecilia Carranza Reyes, 52, of Huntington Park, CA, participated in the delivery of a paper bag that contained four pounds of crystal meth to an individual who, at the direction of the Maine inmate, traveled to Rhode Island from Maine to retrieve the drugs. That individual was kept under constant law enforcement surveillance while returning to Maine, and the drugs were seized by law enforcement during a traffic stop in Maine.

A court-authorized search of Carranza Reyes' motor vehicle in Rhode Island at the time of her arrest on June 8, 2022, resulted in the discovery of more than two-and one-half pounds of methamphetamine stashed inside a duffel bag and in a sophisticated hide located within the engine compartment of the vehicle.

Carranza Reyes pleaded guilty on January 25, 2024, to a charge of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and to a charge of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. She was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy to forty-six months of incarceration to be followed by three years of federal supervised release.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Stacey A. Erickson.

The matter was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

United States Attorney Cunha thanks the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maine and the DEA in Bangor, Maine, for their assistance.

###