(Sioux City)– A Sioux City man has been sentenced in a drug case with ties to Dickinson county.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa says 35-year-old Carmelo Valdez Romero was convicted of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine following a four-day jury trial in federal court back in February of this year. He was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison.
Evidence presented during the trial showed that on March 17th, 2020, Valdez Romero and others possessed with intent to distribute 20 pounds of meth, and that he and others removed 20 one-pound packages of methamphetamine hidden in the gas tank of a rental vehicle that had traveled from California to rural Dickinson county. The vehicle was driven into a machine shed where the rear seats and other equipment was removed from the vehicle so access could be gained to the meth in the gas tank.
While executing a search warrant on the property, officers seized 15 pounds of meth from a safe in the machine shed; along with five more pounds of the drug as it was being driven away from the property; and one pound of meth was seized from a vehicle driven by Valdez Romero. Agents also seized $700 from Valdez Romero and $900 from two passengers. Agents say the cash was “pre-serialized money” that had been used by agents earlier that day to purchase one pound of methamphetamine from Valdez Romero’s drug associate.
Valdez remains in the custody of a U.S. Marshal pending transport to a federal prison.
