PORTLAND — A Bronx woman who supplied illegal narcotics for a “trap house” in West Paris was sentenced Thursday on a federal charge of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute drugs, including crack cocaine.
Princess Munoz-Cordero
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Jon Levy sentenced Princess Munoz Cordero, 21, to the roughly three and half months she has served in jail, plus two years of supervised release.
The felony drug charge was punishable by five to 40 years in prison.
But Levy departed from federal guidelines, noting Cordero’s complex mental health profile and health status, her clean prior criminal record and her easy impressionability at the time of the crime.
During the past year and a half, she has committed no violations of her pretrial release conditions, Levy said.
Investigators said Cordero and Raymond T. Vasquez, also from New York, drove in a van with two others to a supply house at 33 Main St., West Paris, in November 2019 carrying 382 grams of crack cocaine for distribution in that area.
Vasquez drove the van.
Maine State Police stopped the van on the Maine Turnpike in York County and searched it. They found crack cocaine in a bag that belonged to Rodriguez and a different bag that belonged to Cordero, according to court papers.
Troopers also recovered three digital scales from inside a red bag that belonged to Vasquez.
The cocaine seized from the van was later analyzed and confirmed by lab analysis.
“Maine State Police learned from a source of information that (four) individuals from New York City were regularly transporting narcotics to the Trap House and then distributing them in and around West Paris,” according to an affidavit by a Maine State Police trooper.
Investigators said the four suspects had been importing and selling drugs from Oxford Hills to the Rumford area and in southern Franklin County in recent months.
Judge Levy said Thursday that Cordero was part of a conspiracy with her co-defendants to bring narcotics from New York to the West Paris house where the drugs were bagged and sold.
Cordero, who was 19 years old at that time, received “little remuneration” for her part in the conspiracy, Levy said.
She was released from jail in February 2020, three and a half months after her arrest.
In December 2020, she pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge on which she was sentenced Thursday.
Cordero appeared in federal court via videoconference from the living room in her home. She told Levy she hadn’t taken her mental health medications because they make her drowsy and she wanted to be alert for the court hearing.
Her mental health issues include anxiety and auditory hallucinations.
She wiped away tears several times during the hearing, especially when the judge imposed the sentence she had been seeking: time-served.
She is 10 weeks pregnant and is in a relationship with a man who has two children, she said.
Cordero told Levy she wanted to serve as a role model for those children.
“I really want to move forward with my life,” she said. “Having stepkids pushes me to be better.”
She said she wants to complete her high school education, go to beauty school and maybe open her own business someday.
“I know what I did was wrong and has consequences,” she said.
Cordero said she came from poverty, but is working to overcome her past.
“I want to become that voice for teens in my neighborhood, not just become a statistic,” she said.
Cordero said she plans to take care of her grandmother, who is declining in health and, “who needs me as well.”
Her three co-defendants, all from New York, are awaiting trial on similar charges.
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