Leader of Valley Drug Ring Given 25-Year Prison Term
The leader of a drug ring based in the eastern San Fernando Valley was sentenced Monday to 25 years in federal prison for trying to sell nearly 20 pounds of methamphetamine to undercover agents.
Jose Sigala-Lomeli, 41, of Sylmar, was one of six men arrested at the Bombay Bicycle Club restaurant in Burbank during a sting March 28, 1995, by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
He faced a minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a maximum sentence of life behind bars for conspiracy and possession and sale of narcotics. Before sentencing, U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian denied a motion for a new trial.
A jury convicted Sigala-Lomeli in September of negotiating the sale of enough of the powerful stimulant to keep a user continuously high for 256 years. The drugs, which the dealers had arranged to sell to two DEA agents for $4,500 a pound, had an estimated street value of $1.4 million to $2.8 million.
Officials said the multimillion-dollar drug ring that Sigala-Lomeli helped lead sold cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. The Burbank bust resulted from a six-month DEA investigation.
On the night of the sting, the methamphetamine was delivered in a pickup truck with a special compartment while Sigala-Lomeli negotiated with the two agents.
Three co-conspirators in the case were sentenced previously to prison terms ranging from 10 to 16 years. Another was acquitted and one fled after being released on his own recognizance.
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