HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The chief judge of the District Court of Guam called her queen of a drug-dealing operation on island.
Convicted drug dealer Lovelia Mendoza, 39, was sentenced to serve 49 months in a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility after she admitted to the charge of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine hydrochloride.
Her case involves 418.7 grams of meth, which federal prosecutors estimate is worth a street value of $83,740 – $146,545.
“She was like the queenpin in this case. She was making those guys move and dictating to them ‘This is what you got to pick up and package,’” said Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood.
Mendoza was emotional as she apologized to Judge Tydingco-Gatewood and told the court how the past three years and nine months have been in prison.
“It’s been an experience and I cannot express how much of a saving grace it has been. I learned a lot about myself and about the community. It has given me the chance to move forward from all of the abuse and anger that I didn’t even know I really had. I learned how to forgive. I am thankful for it. Needed it because there was no saving me from my thought process,” said Mendoza. “(The drug problem) has only gotten worse since I haven’t been out there. Out there, there is nowhere to turn. Addiction I can say is a sickness and no one is really addressing it. Safe havens are being tarnished too. It’s very unfortunate that there is not a lot of avenues that these individuals battling it can’t go home because it’s at home. I am hearing it’s in the schools and children as young as 15 are bringing newer drugs in. The crime with the killings and the rapes is out of control. As successful as I was to do it, I could have channeled it to do something else. I feel really horrible that I took a part in corruption and the downfall of this community and children.”
She told the court that her crimes cost her her relationship with her children.
“I can’t give back the years that I have taken from them. I want a second chance and I want to be able to save lives. I want to be a better example for my children,” she said. “I want to be able to survive. I really think about where I’ve been and what I’ve done and it’s not what I want to do. I am on the road to recovery, and I want to be able to get there.”
Cooperation
The U.S. Probation Office told the court that Mendoza faces 70 – 87 months for her crime.
The parties agreed to reduce that amount after Mendoza accepted responsibility, testified at trial against her co-defendant Mark Mayo, and helped the feds convict former Yona Mayor Jesse Blas
Mendoza was previously in a romantic relationship with Blas.
Defense attorney Louie Yanza said his client also provided information that alleged probation officers were covering for defendants on pretrial release who had tested positive for drug use.
Mendoza is also serving time for a separate 2017 federal drug case and is scheduled to be released in 49 months.
Her sentence in her latest case will run concurrent to the earlier conviction meaning she will not have to do any additional prison time.
It was said in court that she would serve her time at a facility with a drug treatment program, and near Spokane, Washington, so she could be close to relatives.
Mendoza will also be placed on five years of supervised release.
Drug scheme
Mendoza along with co-actors Mayo, Daniel Pangelinan, and Joseph R. Roman II were charged in federal court after they participated in a scheme to distribute meth between April and May 2018.
According to Post files, Pangelinan and Roman had picked up the package from the Barrigada Post Office before realizing they were being followed by federal agents.
Mendoza agreed to have Mayo meet the pair to pick up the package of drugs so he could deliver it to her. The package, which was already replaced by investigators with a sham and a tracking device, was placed on the side of the road for Mayo.
“Now I can say that I see that there is hope for me. I want to show how grateful I am to the system by doing the right thing,” said Mendoza during sentencing, as she told the court that she has been clean and sober. “I have a long road ahead of me but I am looking forward to living a better and brighter future, and I have hope.”
Lovelia Mendoza
