Lexington man sentenced to prison for 9 years

LEXINGTON, Neb. -- A meth-related charge puts a man from Lexington in prison for nine years.

U.S. Attorney Steven Russell said 35-year-old Rudy Ortega Raymundo, of Lexington, was sentenced in federal court in Lincoln on Friday. Raymundo will serve 108 months in prison for possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine mixture and 50 grams or more actual methamphetamine along with two years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

According to court documents, law enforcement in Frontier County learned that a vehicle on Old Highway 23 was failing to maintain speed on Oct. 3, 2021. A Frontier County Sheriff’s Office deputy saw the vehicle and followed it to a nearby gas station. The officer talked to the driver, Raymundo, about his vehicle at a gas pump about traffic violations.

Officials said Raymundo did not cooperate with the deputy’s requests and was arrested. They searched Raymundo’s vehicle and found a black trash bag in the back seat containing four bags of meth along with a meth pipe with residue and a scale in the center console. In total, about three and a half pounds of meth were taken from Raymundo’s vehicle. Some of that meth was tested for purity and determined to be at least 98% pure.

This case was investigated by the Cooperation Operation for Drug Enforcement (CODE) Task Force, Nebraska State Patrol, and the Frontier County Sheriff’s Office.