PAIR PLEADS NO CONTEST IN DRUG CASE : WOMAN GETS 16-MONTH TERM.Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer The wife and brother of a Canyon Country man accused of operating an international cocaine ring accepted plea bargains Friday as prosecutors moved to wrap up the 17-defendant case. Leah Dial, wife of drug kingpin suspect Juan Carlos Juan Car·los Born 1938. King of Spain (since 1975) who acceded to the throne on the death of Francisco Franco and helped restore parliamentary democracy. Noun 1. Giraldo, pleaded no contest to charges of conspiring to launder Launder To move illegally acquired cash through financial systems so that it appears to be legally acquired. money and being an accessory after the fact in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine. She was sentenced to 16 months in state prison by Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Superior Court Judge Curtis Rappe. All other charges against her were dropped. Giraldo's brother, German, 47, also of Canyon Country, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of money laundering The process of taking the proceeds of criminal activity and making them appear legal. Laundering allows criminals to transform illegally obtained gain into seemingly legitimate funds. and was placed on two years' probation. The pair were among 17 residents of the Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, and San Fernando valleys indicted INDICTED, practice. When a man is accused by a bill of indictment preferred by a grand jury, he is said to be indicted. in November with operating a cocaine ring that distributed up to 200 pound of drugs each month. Investigators believe the ring may have operated over five years, shipping cocaine from Colombia to Los Angeles via Mexico. The drugs were distributed as far away as New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Hawaii and British Columbia. Giraldo, who was convicted of running a smaller cocaine ring in 1988, is suspected of operating the ring out of his Canyon Country home since shortly after his release from prison in 1990. He was among 15 people arrested in September by a task force lead by sheriff's deputies and Glendale police. He faces more than 30 years in prison if convicted of a host of drug charges. Also arrested and indicted by a Los Angeles County grand jury was his younger brother Freddie Giraldo, also of Canyon Country. The brother is still facing several felonies as are seven other defendants. The other defendants already have reached plea bargains, said Deputy District Attorney Peter Gagney. The prosecutor said settlement agreements should be reached in most of the remaining cases. However, Giraldo and Caesar Uribe, of North Hollywood, and Sam Asadi, of Valencia - identified by authorities as his lieutenants - are expected to go to trial July 22. |
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