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Although he faced a sentence of up to 25 years, Eder Cortez-Zelaya will spend no time in federal prison for his involvement in a meth smuggling scheme between 2010 and 2014. He was given a sentence of credit for time served in a detention facility which totaled five and a half years.
"You are a free man," Chief Judge Tydingco-Gatewood said to Cortez-Zelaya, who appeared via Zoom.
Tydingco-Gatewood also gave Cortez-Zelaya no supervised release, something she said she has never done in her career.
"The court notes that the goal of punishment is rehabilitation. The court recognizes this defendant, as one of the few in my lifetime and my career that has met that goal," Tydingco-Gatewood said.