A man was sentenced to 17 years and 11 months in federal prison and ordered deported after he was convicted of trying to start a drug trafficking operation in Cobb County, officials said.
Blas Aleman, 38, was a fugitive in Mexico for eight years before he was extradited to the United States in 2016, U.S. Attorney John Horn said in a news release.
Aleman recruited someone in Marietta to become a drug courier in 2008, Horn said. He bought a car in Smyrna and had it registered and insured in the courier’s name.
“This is yet another case where federal law enforcement was and will continue to be relentless in finding those who cause drugs to be brought into our neighborhoods,” Beverly Harvard, U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Georgia, said in the release.
In May 2008, Aleman and the courier went to Guerrero, Mexico, and delivered the car to other traffickers, according to the release.
While in Mexico, Aleman was responsible for hiding 11.8 kilograms of cocaine and 1.3 kilograms of methamphetamine in the vehicle, officials said. He then told the courier to deliver the vehicle to Aleman’s conspirators in Atlanta.
However, the courier was stopped by police on I-20 in Mississippi for a traffic violation, according to the release. During a search of the vehicle, officers found the drugs.
In June 2008, a grand jury indicted Aleman, the courier and three other people on a drug charge, officials said. Aleman was found guilty in April after a four-day trial.
“Thanks to the diligence of our federal and state law enforcement partners,” Horn said, “this drug trafficker has been brought to justice after spending almost eight years as a fugitive.”
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