wo of three men originally believed to have been part of an international drug cartel have been sentenced to prison though the “drugs” they were caught with were fake.
Julio Ponce, 43, of Barra de la Cruz, Mexico, was sentenced to seven to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty in Muskegon County Circuit Court to conspiring to deliver 1,000 grams or more of heroin, court records show.
Albaro Perez, 42, of Elsa, Texas, was sentenced to 21 months to 30 years after pleading guilty to conspiring to deliver 450 to 999 grams of heroin, records show. A charge of conspiring to deliver more than 1,000 grams of the drug was dismissed.
Perez was sentenced Dec. 3 and Ponce on Nov. 5 by Muskegon County Circuit Judge William C. Marietti.
A third man, Martin Trevino, of Mercedes, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deliver 50 to 500 grams as part of an agreement with the prosecutor’s office, said Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat. Trevino originally was charged with conspiracy to deliver 1,000 or more grams of heroin.
He was sentenced in September to 12 months in jail, with credit for time served, and released from jail.