College Park man gets 150 months in crack cocaine case

Josue Monroy pleads guilty to possession and distribution charges

A federal judge on Monday sentenced a 31-year-old College Park man to 150 months — more than 12 years — in prison for possessing crack cocaine and intending to distribute it.

Josue Monroy, who pleaded guilty to the charges, must also serve five years of supervised probation upon his release, under the terms of the sentence pronounced by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt. The judge noted that Monroy is a "career offender" with two prior drug convictions.

A statement from the office of the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, Rod J. Rosenstein, said that in July 2009, Monroy made arrangements to sell 62 grams of crack to a "source" for $1,750 in cash, a transaction that took place at a College Park gas station. In October that year, law enforcement officers searched Monroy's home on Baltimore Road in College Park and recovered $14,574 in cash as well as drug paraphernalia that had traces of the drug.

Monroy was arrested and released under terms that confined him to his home with an electronic monitor. Police said Monroy removed the device and, in violation of the conditions of his release, left the area. He was later found in Massachusetts.

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