From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Fri Feb 26 2010 - 07:30:38 EST
Canadian Man Sentenced To 8 Years For Role In Ecstasy Ring
Posted: 7:35 pm PST February 25, 2010
*SAN FRANCISCO -- *A Canadian citizen has been sentenced in federal court in
San Francisco to eight and one-half years in prison for conspiring to
distribute nearly 150,000 pills of the drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy, in
2008.
Henoke Teclechaimanot, 25, of Vancouver, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy
charge on Nov. 3 and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William Alsup on
Wednesday.
Teclechaimanot, whose parents immigrated from Eritrea to Canada, admitted in
the plea agreement that he flew to San Francisco on May 20, 2008, to
supervise an exchange of 148,956 ecstasy pills for 18 kilograms of cocaine.
Prosecutors said in a sentencing brief that probation officers estimated the
pills had a wholesale value of $500,000 and a street value of $5 million.
The planned exchange was financed and organized by Canadian resident Acram
Adam, according to prosecutors.
But the deal was in fact a sting by undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration agents.
Prosecutors said in the sentencing memo that Teclechaimanot sampled one
kilogram of cocaine provided by the undercover agents in San Bruno on May
21, 2008.
The Canadian and a government informant then inspected the pills in two
suitcases in the trunk of a car rented by another man accused in the
conspiracy, Aleksandr Magero.
Teclechaimanot and Magero were arrested in the car in San Mateo by San Mateo
County sheriff's deputies that evening.
Magero had driven the pills from Washington state to the Bay Area, according
to prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge on Sept. 26
and was sentenced on Feb. 1 to five years and four months in prison.
Prosecutors said in their brief that Teclechaimanot had appeared to be "a
savvy veteran of the drug trade" in his inspection of the cocaine and pills
and had been entrusted with a high level of responsibility by Adam and
others in the Canadian drug ring.
The federal attorneys wrote, "The amount of drugs involved here, and their
value, is quite simply, staggering."
Defense attorney Nina Wilder wrote in a sentencing brief that
Teclechaimanot, who was a music promoter, and Adam were part of a small
Eretrian and Ethiopian community in Vancouver.
She said Adam took advantage of Teclechaimanot's alleged "misguided loyalty
and naivete" when he asked Teclechaimanot to do him a favor in exchange for
his travel expenses to go to Irvine for a cousin's graduation.
Teclechaimanot will be deported to Canada and Magero will be deported to
Russia after they complete serving their sentences.
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