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NEW ORLEANS – A Cuban National was sentenced on June 16, 2021 to five years in prison for conspiring to sell a kilogram of cocaine to a federal confidential informant, announced U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

According to court documents, Pablo Pedro Morales-Curbelo, age 63, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, was previously indicted on August 29, 2019 by a Federal Grand Jury in a two count indictment, charging him in Count 1 with conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.  In Count 2 Morales-Curbelo was charged with attempting to possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.  On December 4, 2019, Morales-Curbelo pled guilty to Count 1 of the indictment, a violation of 21 U.S.C. 846, and he faced a minimum statutory sentence of five years to a maximum sentence of forty years in prison. Morales-Curbelo’s sentencing was postponed numerous times because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These charges stemmed from an investigation by Special Agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office into the illegal activities of Morales-Curbelo.

At sentencing, Federal District Court Judge Lance Africk ordered that the five-year mandatory minimum sentence be served consecutively to another five-year sentence that Morales-Curbelo was serving for a supervised release revocation, which also stemmed from a prior federal drug conviction.  In total, he was sentenced to serve 10 years in federal prison, four years of supervised release following imprisonment, and payment of a mandatory $100 special assessment fee.

U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurice E. Landrieu, Jr. prosecuted the case.