Man Indicted on Drug Possession Charge
A 23-year-old Huntington Park man was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in San Diego on charges that he was carrying 545 pounds of cocaine when he was stopped this month at the San Onofre checkpoint south of San Clemente.
Felipe Santiago Moran-Pallan was arrested April 6 after Border Patrol agents found 248 kilogram packages of the drug in the trunk of the car he was driving.
In a press release, U.S. Atty. William Braniff said the street value of that much cocaine would be about $31 million.
Moran-Pallan is accused of possessing the drug with an intent to distribute. If convicted, he faces a term of from 10 years to life in federal prison, Braniff said. Moran-Pallan could also be fined as much as $4 million.
Moran-Pallan is being held without bail in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego.
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