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TALLAHASSEE, FL –Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that a Mexican man residing in Volusia County was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a cocaine and marijuana trafficking operation responsible for distributing narcotics throughout Central Florida. Heriberto Banuelos Jimenez pled guilty in May to multiple drug related charges, including conspiring to traffic in 25 pounds or more of cannabis, in a case prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

Banuelos Jimenez, 47, was arrested in October 2007 after a lengthy investigation by the Volusia Bureau of Investigation. The investigation revealed that Banuelos Jimenez and a group of associates were distributing large amounts of marijuana into Central Florida.

In addition to his prison sentence, civil judgments were issued against Banuelos Jimenez for the costs associated with the investigation and his prosecution. Upon his release from prison, Banuelos Jimenez will be turned over to officials with the United States Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings.