Newport Woman : Homemaker Convicted on Drug Counts

A Newport Beach homemaker was convicted Friday in Los Angeles federal court on cocaine charges based on the sale of drug samples to undercover federal agents at a motel in Costa Mesa.

The jury deliberated less than three hours before returning the guilty verdicts against Carol Maciel, 44, who was charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, two counts of distributing the drug and one count of possession.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Darrell W. MacIntyre, who prosecuted the case, said Maciel, whom he described as a major cocaine trafficker in Orange County, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each of the four counts.

MacIntyre said Maciel, the mother of two, began selling cocaine to get her husband, Pablo, out of a jail in Tijuana, where he has been confined on a drug-related charge. She claimed he was being tortured there, but the prosecution argued otherwise.

Testimony of Agents

According to testimony during the five-day trial, Maciel approached an undercover agent for the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration last April 12 about obtaining high-quality cocaine.

She subsequently sold more than $56,000 worth of cocaine on several occasions before meeting with undercover DEA agents on June 27 at the Red Lion Hotel in Newport Beach. There she gave two samples of cocaine, worth $9,500, to the agents, who arrested her, MacIntyre said.

Maciel claimed entrapment as a defense. “But the agents testified that she brought up the subject of cocaine and selling it,” the prosecutor said.

One of her cocaine suppliers, Jackie Anderson, 33, of Santa Ana, was arrested at his home, MacIntyre said. Anderson pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, testified against Maciel and other charges against him were dropped. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 5.