Former Baja CA prosecutor convicted of cocaine conspiracy

A former Baja California prosecutor who entered the United States in a car filled with cocaine was sentenced Wednesday by a federal judge in San Diego to two years in prison.

Under a plea agreement, Ana Sofia Lopez Osuna, 33, was arrested last year for driving a car loaded with about 55 pounds of cocaine from Mexico into the U.S. and then handing the car over to a man in National City.

Prosecutors said the man, Oliver Alan Rosas Gomez, drove to the residence, unloaded the drugs and returned the car to Lopez Osuna.

Lopez Osuna was stopped while driving and officers found an aftermarket glove box in the rear bumper of the car, which was empty. Lopez Osuna told officers she had been shopping during her lunch break at work in Tijuana.

Rosas Gomez was later arrested at his home, and court documents say he intended to transport the drugs to Los Angeles. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Earlier this year, Lopez Osuna pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Then-Baja California Attorney General Ricardo Ivan Carpio told the San Diego Union-Tribune last year that Lopez Osuna started working at the prosecutor’s office in 2015 and that her job largely consisted of “administrative tasks.”

A sentencing memorandum prepared by her defense attorney, Antonio Cervantes, said her role in the prosecutor’s office was “to be an assistant prosecutor.”

Both the prosecution and defense said in their filings that Lopez Osuna’s role in the crime was minor compared to that of her co-defendant, though prosecutors wrote that Lopez Osuna “repeatedly transported significant quantities of illegal narcotics across the border into the United States” and “received substantial payments.”

Although prosecutors say the crimes were not committed because of “significant poverty,” Cervantes wrote that his client participated in the crime “to help her mother pay medical bills.”

— Municipal Information Service