A California woman has been sentenced to spend nearly two decades in state prison.
According to Lafayette County prosecutor Kristen Ellis Hilbrenner, on Monday, April 20, 22-year-old Brenda Alcaraz, of Arvin, California, appeared in Circuit Court for a sentencing hearing after entering a guilty plea on February 3.
The charges against Alcaraz arose after a traffic stop on I-70 on October 29, 2019. When the trooper approached the vehicle, he identified the driver as Alcaraz and the passenger as a 15-year-old female, who was not related to the driver. Alcaraz and the juvenile gave conflicting stories about how they knew each other, and it was learned that the juvenile’s mother believed the child was still in Oregon with her grandparents. That led the trooper to take both individuals to the Higginsville Police Department to further his investigation. Although Alcaraz remained deceptive about the purpose of their trip, eventually 5-1/2 pounds of methamphetamine were located on the juvenile. The methamphetamine was strapped to the child’s abdomen for approximately three days.
When questioned about her involvement, Alcaraz admitted she was going to make $6,000 for this trip. She also admitted she had made other trips similar to this one, and had taken a job with a new drug smuggler because he was going to pay her more than the previous one had. It was also learned that Alcaraz strapped the methamphetamine to the child, and law enforcement believes that was because Alcaraz felt that officers were less likely to search a female juvenile if they were stopped for any reason.
Following testimony from two Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers involved in the investigation, Hilbrenner recommended a lengthy sentence in the Department of Corrections.
Judge Dennis Rolf sentenced Alcaraz to a term of 18 years for a Class A Felony for Trafficking Drugs in the First Degree and five years for a Class D Felony for Endangering the Welfare of a Child in the First Degree. The sentences are to run concurrently.
After sentencing was concluded, Hilbrenner made the following statement: “It is amazing the amount of narcotics that are being trafficked along the drug corridor that is I-70. It is a credit to our local law enforcement officers that we are able to catch and prosecute as many as we do. The trooper’s diligence in this particular case saved a 15 year old child from having to keep pounds of methamphetamine strapped to her for any longer and it got thousands and thousands of dollars worth of meth off the streets. This sentence can send a clear message to drug traffickers who think that transporting large quantities of drugs through Lafayette County can be profitable – you’d better include a long sentence in the penitentiary when weighing the risk versus reward”