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MADISON - Federal authorities said they
found a man wanted in Wisconsin on drug charges while booking him into a
Florida prison under a different name.
Martin Pineda Pineda is charged in
federal court in Wisconsin with conspiracy to deliver and distribute
cocaine. Prosecutors said he was part of a Watertown-based cocaine ring
that saturated southeastern Wisconsin with the drug.
State Justice Department agents and local
police broke up the ring in June 2008 in a series of raids across the
region. They captured its alleged leader, Maximo "Coco" Pineda
Buenaventura, in Watertown.
Federal prosecutors charged 21 people in
the case in Madison, but four were not arrested, including Pineda
Pineda. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Connell said Pineda Pineda left
Watertown weeks before the raids.
Connell said investigators thought he had
gone to Mexico, but he was actually living in Florida under the name
Magin Avila Avellaneda. In less than a year he was in trouble there.
According to court documents, Avila
Avellaneda helped deliver methamphetamine to an undercover Drug
Enforcement Administration agent.
Federal prosecutors in Tampa charged
Pineda Pineda under the Avila Avellaneda alias in February with
conspiracy to distribute the drug. He pleaded guilty in July and U.S.
District Judge Steven D. Merryday sentenced him to 70 months in prison
in September.
As U.S. marshals processed his
fingerprints as part of his prison entry process, Connell said, they
discovered Avila Avellaneda was really Pineda Pineda.
He was returned to Madison, where he
pleaded not guilty on Oct. 22 to conspiracy to deliver a controlled
substance and two counts of distributing a controlled substance. He's
being held in Columbia County jail. His trial is set for March.
Connell said there's no basis to charge
Pineda Pineda with fleeing or evading, because it's unclear if he knew
about the Wisconsin charges.
Pineda Pineda's attorney in Wisconsin,
Erika Bierma, didn't immediately return a message Thursday morning. His
attorney in Florida, Timothy James Fitzgerald, declined comment.
Connell said the three other alleged
members of the Watertown ring who got away — Angel Ayala Pineda,
Celestino Velazquez Rodriguez and Emmanuel Pineda Gonzalez — remain
fugitives.
Pineda Buenaventura pleaded guilty to
conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance last December and was
sentenced to 17½ years in federal prison.
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