DEFOREST, Wis. (WFRV) – Timothy M. O’Shea, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin announced that a 31-year-old Wisconsin man was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
According to the release, Braulio Martinez Salazar of DeForest was sentenced on Tuesday by Chief United States District Judge James Peterson just under three months after pleading guilty to attempting to distribute cocaine.
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The charge stems from investigations through the United States Drug Enforcement Administration from late 2022 to early 2023, when investigators looked into a cocaine trafficking organization in the DeForest and Madison areas.
The investigators learned that Martinez Salazar was picking up a half-kilo of cocaine on June 1, 2023, after intercepting phone calls and surveillance. Martinez Salazar was set to deliver the drugs to a group in Madison, when he was stopped on the way by a deputy with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.
A narcotics dog alerted to drugs in the car, and officers located the cocaine in there, and further investigations indicated that the organization may have been distributing multiple kilos of cocaine.
The 3-year sentence came from Judge Peterson’s view that while Martinez Salazar lacked a criminal history and priors, he was also part of a harmful drug conspiracy, which created the need for the length of prison time.
No additional details were provided.
