POT GROWER RECEIVES LIFE IN PRISON

Pot grower receives life in prison Man had two prior trafficking
convictions

A man who grew marijuana plants on federal forest land was sentenced
to life in prison in a Gainesville courtroom Thursday.

Andrew N. Cox, 45, of Blairsville was subject to federal sentencing
guidelines that mandate a life sentence for someone with two prior
drug trafficking convictions, U.S. Attorney's spokesman Patrick Crosby
said.

The federal prison system does not have parole.

Cox used a landscaping business as a cover to grow marijuana on forest
land in the Chattahoocheee National Forest in spring 2004, according
to evidence presented at his November trial.

Three of Cox's employees, Jose Quezadas-Fuerros, Mayola
Vargas-Villenueva and Paciano Vargas-Hernandez, helped transplant
marijuana seedlings into U.S. Forest Service property. U.S. Forest
Service agents found 594 plants in the forest and 724 seedlings in the
yard of Cox' father.

Cox was indicted in January 2005 but fled the area, remaining a
fugitive until his capture in Casa Grande, Ariz., in February 2008.

Cox was convicted on state drug trafficking charges in Florida in 1991
and has a 2000 trafficking conviction from the Middle District of Georgia.

"This defendant was a twice-convicted drug trafficker who has now
received his third and final strike," U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said
in a statement. "His life sentence is just punishment for a career in
the illegal drug trade, which most recently led him to exploit and
degrade national forest land."

Senior U.S. District Court Judge William C. O'Kelley imposed the
mandatory minimum sentence.

The three co-defendants in the case pleaded guilty to related charges
last year and got sentences of two, three and five years in prison.

If Cox had no prior trafficking convictions, he would have been
subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.