A Mexican national already serving time in a prison in Oklahoma will stay behind bars for quite a while longer after being sentenced for running a drug ring out of that prison.
32-year old Socorro Alvarez has been given 15-years for distribution of 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and, under federal law, will serve the entire time with no early release, followed by 10 years of supervised release.
U-S Attorney for Nebraska Steven Russell says Alvarez used an illicit cell phone while in the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Oklahoma to make contact with a meth supplier in Los Angeles to send a package of meth to Nebraska.
Although the connection had worked in the past, Russell says law enforcement intercepted a package of 420 grams of meth in June 2020 with a subsequent investigation leading to the arrest of 3 more people.
Shannon Rojas, Shane Lawrence, and Jeremiah Schnoor had all received meth shipments from the incarcerated Alvarez.
Lawrence was sentenced in February of last year to nearly 16 years, Rojas was sentenced in May of last year to almost 6 years, and Schnoor will be sentenced May 18 on guilty pleas for a pair of drug charges.
This case was investigated by the WING (Western Nebraska Intelligence Narcotics Group) Drug Task Force with the Kearney police and the Central Nebraska Drug and Safe Streets Task Force also involved.