Two Iowa men are facing long prison sentences on drug charges. Court records show 29-year-old Ricardo Ballesteros of Spencer pled guilty to conspiring to distribute methamphetamine. He admitted to being involved in a conspiracy to distribute over 10-pounds of mixed methamphetamine, and 13 grams of pure meth along with an individual who was cooperating with police.
Ballesteros was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to 10 years in prison. A Dubuque man also faces a long prison sentence for selling heroin to a person who later died from using the drug. Fifty-year-old Alvin Stanley Briggs Junior admitted that he sold 100-dollars worth of heroin to the individual.
A sentencing date has not been determined, but Briggs will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 20-years in federal prison with the maximum sentence being life. There is no parole in the federal system.