SIMI VALLEY : 8-Year Prison Term Upheld in Drug Case
The state appeal court Wednesday upheld the eight-year prison sentence of a native Colombian who played a key role in the biggest drug-money laundering case in Ventura County history.
Ontoniel Urrego, who was 64 when sentenced in April, had filed the appeal after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell more than three pounds of cocaine earlier this year.
The Ventura-based 2nd District Court of Appeal affirmed the sentence after Urrego failed to raise any legal issues on which his appeal was based by the end of October.
Urrego, a paraplegic since age 16, pleaded guilty in connection with the seizure of $2.5 million in cash in May, 1989, when his brother and two sisters-in-law were arrested in Simi Valley and Chatsworth.
Prosecutors say the money was earmarked for shipment to Colombia, to be camouflaged in barrels of paint pigment and shipped from a dummy company in Simi Valley.
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