QUINTANILLA SENTENCED TO LIFE ON DRUG-RELATED CHARGES

EVANSVILLE - A Dallas, Texas, man associated with distributing
methamphetamine in Knox County and other southern Indiana areas, was
sentenced Wednesday to life without parole by U.S. District Judge Richard
L. Young in Evansville.

Miguel Angel Quintanilla, 42, received the sentenced following his
conviction on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute
meth and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, said Timothy M.
Morrison, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.

Federal agents testified during Quintanilla's trial that meth brought from
Mexico into his Dallas home cost $4,000 a pound. It was sold for $30,000 a
pound in southern Indiana towns such as Vincennes, Washington and Jasper,
the agents said.

Quintanilla had been convicted of three previous drug offenses in Texas
during 1986, 1991 and 1992.

Three Vincennes residents received federal sentences in August in the same
court because they were involved in selling drugs in this area that were
brought here by Quintanilla. They were Nancy Jean Kay, 47, 60 months
imprisonment; and Michael L. Williams, 38, and Harold Wayne Followell, 23,
both received a 37-month imprisonment term, Morrison said.

The case was the result of a year-long investigation by the Drug
Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
Internal Revenue Service, the United States Marshal's Service, the U.S.
Customs Agency, Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Vincennes
Police Department, the Evansville Police Department, the Gibson and Davies
County Sheriff's Departments and the Posey County Prosecutor's Office.

Alfredo Ceballos, 24, Mexico City, Mexico, a co-defendant convicted in the
same trial as Quintanilla, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, Morrison said.

The investigation resulted in the indictment of 18 defendants in the
Southern District of Indiana and dismantled a large-scale meth distribution
network operating in Mexico, Texas and Indiana. Mexican operatives make the
drugs in Mexico, then smuggled the substance into the U.S. through McAllen,
Texas, Morrison said.

Drug couriers then transported the meth by airplane and automobile from
Dallas to southern Indiana. Once the meth arrived in Indiana, Indiana-based
operatives of the Quintanilla Organization broke down the meth into smaller
quantities for distribution, Morrison said.