A Woodland man was sentenced to 11 years in prison Thursday for drug offenses uncovered in a wide-ranging investigation by federal, state, county and city law enforcement agencies in Northern California, The Reporter has learned.
In a federal courtroom in Sacramento, Victor Magana, 28, heard a judge hand down an 11-year and and three-month term for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, Attorney Phillip A. Talbert, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in a press release.
According to court documents, Magana was one of 27 federal defendants arrested in February 2018 on narcotics and weapons-related charges as part of Operation Silent Night, a multi‑agency law enforcement investigation into coordinated criminal activity in Woodland, Talbert noted in the prepared statement.
Beginning in the spring of 2016, the investigation uncovered organized criminal activity in Woodland with ties to criminal organizations in California’s jail and prison system, he added.
Although centered in Yolo County, the investigation revealed that at least nine other California counties were negatively affected by these criminal organizations: Solano, Sacramento, Sutter, Colusa, Yuba, Del Norte, Fresno, Santa Clara, and Siskiyou.
On Aug. 5, 2021, Magana pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and admitted that, on five different occasions in 2017, he had sold methamphetamine to a confidential source in various places in Woodland.
Operation Silent Night stemmed from an investigation by the FBI, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, Woodland Police Department, and the California Highway Patrol.
Talbert said the following agencies also provided “substantial” help: Yolo County Sheriff’s Office, Davis Police Department, Vacaville Police Department, Solano County Sheriff’s Office, Colusa County Sheriff’s Office, Sacramento Police Department, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, West Sacramento Police Department, Yuba City Police Department, Yuba County Sheriff’s Office, Sutter County Sheriff’s Office, the Correctional Intelligence Task Force, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The cases are being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. Source: www.mercurynews.com