CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – A Conway man will spend four years in jail for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
According to a press release from the office of United States Attorney Beth Drake, Artemio Bustos Solano, 35, of Conway, was sentenced in federal court Monday in Florence for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
The judge sentenced Solano to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release when he gets out.
Prosecutors say in the later part of 2010, agents learned from a confidential informant that Solano and a codefendant, who previously pled guilty and has been sentenced, were involved in the distribution of multiple kilograms of cocaine in the Horry County area. The informant was able to approach Solano and the codefendant and arrange to buy two kilograms of cocaine from them.
Solano negotiated the details of the deal, which was to take place on April 8, 2011, in the parking lot of a grocery store in Conway. On the agreed upon date, the informant brought the “buy money” to the grocery store parking lot and showed it to the codefendant who then left to retrieve the cocaine from Solano’s residence. After the codefendant returned to the grocery store parking lot with the cocaine, agents arrested the codefendant and seized the two kilograms.
However, agents were not able to apprehend Solano at the scene. In fact, he was not arrested until September 2017. The case was investigated by agents of ICE- Homeland Security Investigations with the assistance of the 15th Circuit Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU). Assistant United States Attorney A. Bradley Parham of the Florence office prosecuted the case.
