News Releases
QUEZADAS SENTENCED FOR GROWING MARIJUANA IN NATIONAL FOREST; ANDREW COX REMAINS A FUGITIVE
June 14, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
David E. Nahmias, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and Jenny Davis, Acting Supervisory Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Forest Service, today announced that JOSE QUEZADAS-FIERROS, 32, of Mableton, Georgia has been sentenced on charges of conspiring to manufacture marijuana. According to Nahmias and the documents and information presented in court:
QUEZADAS was sentenced by United States District Judge William C. O’Kelley to serve 5 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of $1,500 for growing marijuana on United States Forest Service property. Co-defendant PACIANO VARGAS-HERNANDEZ was sentenced on January 28, 2005, to 24 months in custody, four years of supervised release, and a fine of $1,000 for his role in the conspiracy to grow marijuana. Over 724 marijuana plants were recovered by Forest Service Agents.
In a separate but related case, authorities are searching for ANDREW NEWTON COX, 41, of Blairsville, Georgia, who was indicted on January 11, 2005, on charges he knowingly and intentionally manufactured and attempted to manufacture marijuana; said conspiracy involving growing more than 1,000 marijuana plants on Forest Service property. COX’S case is still pending. COX is believed to have fled the jurisdiction. If anyone has any information concerning the whereabouts of ANDREW COX, please contact the United States Marshal’s Service at 770-532-1361. (NEWS MEDIA NOTE: a photograph of COX, a fugitive, may be available from the United States Marshal’s Service or the United States Attorney’s Office, and is electronically attached to the news release email.)
This case was investigated by Special Agents of the United States Forest Service.
Assistant United States Attorney Susan Coppedge prosecuted the case.
For further information please contact David E. Nahmias (pronounced NAH-me-us), United States Attorney or Gentry Shelnutt, Chief, Criminal Division through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney's Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan.