A former Arizona correctional officer pleaded guilty Thursday and was immediately sentenced to eight years behind bars for smuggling 23 kilograms of methamphetamine and a kilogram of heroin across the border with Mexico with his wife and three children in their vehicle.
Fernando Urrutiaguillen, 35, of Chandler, Arizona, pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, sale or transport of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and sale or transport of a controlled substance, all felonies. He also admitted sentencing enhancements for drugs exceeding a kilogram.
Urrutiaguillen accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Cassidy, who struck sentencing enhancements for a controlled substance exceeding 20 kilograms. Urrutiaguillen was given credit for 930 days behind bars since his arrest in April last year by the California Highway Patrol on the San Diego (5) Freeway at Sand Canyon in Irvine.
Urrutiaguillen was facing 21 years and four moths in prison if convicted at trial, prosecutors said when he was charged.
The defendant, who worked as a correctional officer for a private prison in Arizona, stashed the drugs in the gas tank in Mexico and drove across the border, prosecutors said.