SUPERIOR Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho has sentenced Yongqiang Qiu to four years’ imprisonment with the first two years to be served day by day without parole or early release. The remaining two-year sentence was suspended, and Qiu was also given credit for 52 days of time served.
Qiu pled guilty to illegal possession of a controlled substance — methamphetamine. He has no prior criminal record.
In his judgement and commitment order, Judge Camacho placed Qiu under supervised probation for a period of three years upon his release from imprisonment. The defendant is ordered to report to the Office of Adult Probation on the next business day he is released from the Department of Corrections.
Qiu will pay no fine as the court has ruled that he is indigent, but he was ordered to pay a court fee of $25 and a probation fee of $120 per year.
According to the order, Qui, if called to do so, will testify truthfully in Criminal Case No. 22-0092 (CNMI v. Jian Guang Zhang).
“The defendant is not a U.S. citizen…. The CNMI Clerk of Court shall fax or provide a copy of this Judgment and Commitment Order to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Judge Camacho said.
He also vacated the jury trial set for Oct. 11, 2022.
After the hearing on Sept. 28, 2022, Qiu was ordered to immediately serve his sentence.
Qiu, 34, was represented by attorney Janet King who had requested the Superior Court for an order compelling the Attorney General’s Office to reveal the identity of the informants against her client.
Assistant Attorney General Steven Kessel prosecuted the case.
In a joint statement to the court regarding the basis for the plea agreement, King and Kessel stated that “the facts and circumstances underlying the charge involve the use of Confidential Informant(s) and/or Confidential Source(s). Should this matter proceed to trial, the Commonwealth would be required to call as witness(es) any involved Confidential Source(s) and/or Confidential Informant(s) thereby revealing their identity. Such disclosure could possibly compromise the safety and well-being of these confidential sources, as well as the operational integrity of other ongoing criminal investigations and/or criminal prosecutions for similarly situated defendants.”
Following a “buy-walk” operation conducted by the Department of Public Safety-Drug Enforcement Task Force in April 2022, Qiu was identified by informers as a drug dealer who sold methamphetamine.
