MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Hennepin County District Court judge sentenced a 37-year-old man, accused in a major meth ring, to 30 years in prison. The sentence is a state record for a drug crime.
Pedro Ayala-Leyva, known as Peli, was the last of 11 major defendants to be found guilty in an eight-month investigation of a major methamphetamine ring by St. Paul and Minneapolis police departments, FBI and other agencies.
A jury convicted Ayala-Leyva of conspiracy to commit first-degree controlled substance crime.
Roughly seven years was recommended by the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines but Hennepin County attorneys argued for a much-steeper punishment.