Judge Mark W. Bennett of the Northern District of Iowa said Julita Aldan Sablan will serve consecutively the sentences of 70 and 15 months incarceration.
“The charges stem from a seven-count superseding indictment which charged Sablan and co-defendant Roque Norita with drug conspiracy and other drug trafficking crimes. This was defendant Sablan’s third federal felony drug conviction,” said U.S. Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the NMI Alicia Limitiaco in a statement.
Following her release from a federal prison for her latest sentence, Sablan will be placed on supervised release for six years to run concurrent with the 57 months of supervised release from her previous case.
Judge Bennett heard oral arguments between Assistant U.S. Prosecutor James. J. Benedetto, the prosecutor, and Sablan’s counsel, G. Anthony Long, from 1 p.m. up to 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday.
Bennett overruled the defense’s argument that the U.S. government breached the plea agreement signed by Sablan.
Bennett recommended that Sablan participate in the 500-hour drug treatment program while incarcerated.
He said she will be housed in a facility called Dublin Camp in Dublin, California, “if possible.”
Sablan was required to pay a $100 special assessment fee to be paid immediately after sentencing.
All fines were waived since it was determined that Sablan did not have the ability to pay a fine, the court said.
The court dismissed the remaining charges against Sablan as moved by the U.S. government.
On or about July 28, 2009, according to count six of the second superseding indictment, Sablan “knowingly and intentionally possessed a controlled substance, namely 0.07 net grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride, with the intent to distribute it, at Banana Beach in Tanapag village.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the pre-dawn operations in Sept. 2009 that led to the arrest of Sablan and other defendants were the result of an 18-month-long Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation by federal law enforcement agencies: the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
On March 20, 2007, the federal court on Saipan sentenced Sablan to 24 months imprisonment for conspiracy, possession, and distribution of “ice,” followed by six years of supervised release that started on Sept. 18, 2008.
On Sept. 16, 2009, the U.S. government filed new drug charges against Sablan.
