By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

DISTRICT Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood sentenced a drug peddler to 30 months of imprisonment after the defendant agreed to enter a guilty plea to an indictment charging her with criminal conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine hydrochloride or “ice.”
Instead of 40 years in prison, Ovita Antoinette Cruz, 48, was meted out 30 months in prison following Tydingco-Gatewood’s decision to grant her motion for “downward departure.”
As a result, Cruz would be made to cooperate with federal law enforcement agents concerning their investigation on the importation and distribution of controlled substances and related unlawful activities.
To ensure that all the information she will provide are accurate and truthful, Cruz agreed to submit to a polygraph examination.
Tydingco-Gatewood also recommended to the Bureau of Prisons that Cruz be made “to participate in the 500-hour drug treatment program and to receive medical treatment for hepatitis.”
Court records show that between May 2006 and Aug. 11, 2006, Cruz was assisting others to distribute methamphetamine hydrochloride or “ice,” which they had received from another distributor.
On Aug. 11, 2006, Cruz had in her possession approximately 13 grams of “ice” with a plan to assist in its distribution.
Under the law, a criminal conspiracy to distribute more than 5 grams net weight of methamphetamine is punishable by a maximum of 40 years of imprisonment, a $2 million fine, and a $100 special assessment fee, which must be paid at the time of sentencing.
2 women charged
In other news, two women were charged before the Superior Court of Guam with possession of a schedule II controlled substance.
In a magistrate complaint filed by the Attorney General‘s Office, charged were Georgette Sablan Cruz, 27, and Lelani Michelle Atoigue Peredo, 28.
Cruz was also found to have committed a felony while on felony release. She has pending felony charges of burglary and theft of property.
In a three-page complaint, Assistant Attorney General J. Basil O’Mallan III said Cruz and Peredo were accosted by Police Officers F.V. Lujan and P.J. Leon Guerrero for not wearing a seat belt while cruising along Yona aboard a 1994 Toyota Corolla on Jan. 19.
Cruz, who was driving the car, alighted from the vehicle and defensively informed the officers that she was not doing anything wrong, that she had nothing to hide, and that they could search her vehicle.
During the search, Guerrero found an empty soda can in the center console of the vehicle between the two front seats. Sticking out of the can was a clear plastic baggie that has a short heat-sealed plastic straw containing “ice.”
Cruz and Peredo denied owning the illegal substance and pointed at each other as the one who stopped at a house in Pulantat, Yona where the drug was obtained from a man shortly before they were stopped by the police.