Lakewood Man Convicted Of Drug Trafficking Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison

A convicted drug trafficker from Lakewood was sentenced to 15 years in prison and five years of supervised release in federal court Tuesday.

Juan Hidalgo-Mendoza, 33, was convicted in May on a number of federal drug charges that authorities brought following the shooting death of his roommate in 2012.

At the sentencing U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton referred to Hidalgo-Mendoza's apartment as “ground zero” for local trafficking activity and “a magnet for crime and violence” that drew the attention of armed intruders and led to the death of his roommate.

Emergency crews, including Lakewood Police, responded to the Greenwood Apartments on San Francisco Ave. SW, in Lakewood, just before 10 p.m., Nov. 12, 2012.  They found Jaime Diaz-Solis with a fatal gunshot wound on the sidewalk outside the ground floor apartment he shared with Hidalgo-Mendoza.

According to witnesses, they heard a gunshot and later Hidalgo-Mendoza dragged Dias-Solis from the apartment yelling for neighbors to call an ambulance. Hidalgo-Mendoza said he was in his bedroom when the victim was shot by an intruder.

On the night of the shooting a search of the apartment revealed two bricks of heroin weighing over three kilos, wrapped in duct tape, as well as an AK-47 style assault weapon and ammunition.  Investigators also found a revolver in Hidalgo-Mendoza's bedroom closet.  Hidden under the seat of Hidalgo-Mendoza's truck, investigators found $37,800 in cash.

Hidalgo-Mendoza was arrested in November for the drug conspiracy as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm. He has a prior conviction in California for distributing heroin and is prohibited from possessing firearms.Two months after Hidalgo-Mendoza, arrest, and after the apartment had been rented to a new tenant, law enforcement learned there were additional drugs hidden in the unit.  In the walls they found eight bricks of heroin wrapped in duct tape, and two bricks of methamphetamine wrapped in green cellophane.  The hidden heroin totaled more than 13 kilos and the methamphetamine was nearly two kilos. The wrapping of the heroin was identical to the two bricks seized in November.

In asking for a significant sentence prosecutors wrote to the court, “Hidalgo-Mendoza is a repeat offender. He was caught, convicted, and imprisoned for selling heroin three years before this offense, in California. He was subject to court supervision for that offense at the time he came to Washington, ostensibly to obtain a driver’s license but almost certainly with designs related to the drug trade."

"That being the case, unlike first-time offenders, he cannot claim ignorance to the potential criminal consequences of drug trafficking activity, and was intimately aware of the hazards of the business (evidenced by his weapons) as well as the tragic impact drugs have on users.”