TAMPA, FL — Raymond Montanez, a 42-year-old resident of Land O’ Lakes, has entered a guilty plea to charges related to the distribution and possession of cocaine. United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced the plea, highlighting Montanez’s involvement in a conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine within the Middle District of Florida.
Each charge Montanez faces is accompanied by a minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years, with the potential for up to 40 years in federal prison. The court has yet to schedule a date for sentencing.
Court records detail Montanez’s criminal activities, which spanned from an unspecified start date to May 11, 2023. His method of operation involved importing cocaine through the mail and facilitating sales within the local area. Notably, on March 17, 2023, Montanez conducted a transaction involving 209 grams of a substance with an undercover officer. A subsequent deal on April 13, 2023, saw Montanez selling approximately 200 grams of a substance, also to an undercover officer.
Further investigations led agents to observe Montanez on April 24, 2023, as he traveled to Jupiter, Florida. There, he met with a co-conspirator and acquired a package containing roughly one kilogram of cocaine. Following this meeting, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop, confirming Montanez as the vehicle’s sole occupant, and seized the cocaine. A subsequent analysis by the Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed the seized substance to be cocaine, weighing 999.1 grams.