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Filed Under:drug trafficking, Irene Cornell, Jose Mauro Mota
Investigators found a suitcase holding meth and heroin in a car trunk when they arrested Jose Mauro Mota in 2011. (Credit: Drug Enforcement Administration)Investigators found a suitcase holding meth and heroin in a car trunk when they arrested Jose Mauro Mota in 2011. (Credit: Drug Enforcement Administration)


NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A New York City-based drug kingpin was sentenced to 11 years behind bars Wednesday.

Jose Mauro Mota, believed to be a major supplier of narcotics on the Eastern seaboard, was arrested in 2011 at the Vince Lombardi service area off I-95 in New Jersey. Narcotics agents, conducting a wiretap investigation, watched the transfer of a $6.5 million shipment of 11 pounds of heroin and 51 pounds of methamphetamine from a tractor-trailer to Mota’s car.

Mota changed his plea to guilty in the middle of his trial in April, WCBS 880’s Irene Cornell reported.

There had been testimony at the trial that Mota was expecting cocaine with the heroin, but the Mexican cartel he was dealing with substituted the large quantity of methamphetamine as part of a plan to expand the market for crystal meth in the U.S.

The amount of methamphetamine was the region’s largest seizure of the drug in recent history, the Drug Enforcement Administration said at the time of the arrest.

A second defendant, Deivis Rafael Ceballos, was arrested with Mota. The jury delivered a partial verdict in his trial, and the judge declared a mistrial on three charges. Ceballos will be retried.

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