One of three men accused of trying to sell cocaine to an undercover FBI confidential informant earlier this year in the Bass Pro Shop parking lot in Harlingen, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison.
Jonathan Macias, 26, appeared Thursday before U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr., who sentenced Macias to 60 months in prison to be followed by four years supervised release.
In the sentencing, Rodriguez ordered that Macias have no contact with his co-conspirators while in federal prison. Macias pleaded guilty May 5, to one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
His co-conspirators, Florentino Trevino, 21, and Jesus Zuniga, 23, also pleaded guilty to cocaine distribution charges earlier this year. They are scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 13 and Sept. 22, respectively.
The trio was arrested March 2, in the parking lot of the Bass Pro in Harlingen, federal court documents reflect.
According to a March 3, federal criminal complaint, Trevino, Macias and Zuniga attempted on two separate occasions to sell the undercover informant cocaine.
Trevino had been under investigation because he was a “cocaine trafficker who operated in Cameron and Hidalgo counties,” the federal criminal complaint stated.
The trio first tried to sell the cocaine to the undercover informant on March 1 at a Family Dollar Store in Rancho Viejo, officials said. After waiting for several hours, the sell was canceled because “Trevino could not get anyone to deliver the drugs,” the federal criminal complaint stated.
In addition, the “subject said there were too many marked police units driving by and it looked suspicious that they had been parked there for so long,” the federal criminal complaint states.
Trevino contacted the confidential informant later that day and stated he now had the cocaine and would deliver the drugs the next day, officials said.
Trevino, Macias and Zuniga showed up at the Bass Pro Shop parking lot at around noon on March 2, officials said. As the drugs were being exchanged between the trio and the confidential informant, FBI agents arrested the men, officials said.
According to the federal criminal complaint, Trevino had a .45 caliber handgun in his front waistband. An AK-47 rifle was found on the driver’s side floorboard of a red Ford truck driven by Macias, officials said. The agents said they also observed what was believed to be a kilo of cocaine in the vehicle driven by Zuniga.
The trio was transported to the Brownsville FBI office and when Macias was asked about the truck which was registered to a woman, he said she was his wife, according to officials. Macias also told the agents that his wife was “a law enforcement officer. Macias stated his wife was going to leave him once she found out what he was doing,” the federal complaint states.
Zuniga told the agents he knew a package he was told to pick up contained drugs but that it might be marijuana, officials said.
