Man in drug trafficking case to serve 240-month imprisonment

A man who had pleaded guilty to drug trafficking has been sentenced to an imprisonment term of 20 years.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona Manglona sentenced Qiu Shuo, also known as “Ike,” to 240 months in prison for drug trafficking, firearm possession and bribing a former Corrections officer.

Specifically, Qiu got a 180-month prison sentence for possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, and conspiracy to bribe an official and bribing an official. In addition, he got a 60-month prison term for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Manglona also recommended that Qui be placed in a facility with a drug abuse program and mental health counselling program.

According to court documents, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, with the NMI Drug Enforcement Task Force, executed a search warrant on Qiu last Jan. 12, 2022, in a hotel room where he had been staying in the past six months. Authorities seized 1.6 lbs of methamphetamine, an undetermined amount of cash, and two handguns with ammunition during the search.

Qui had stated that he was mainly supplied by two people who would give him between 100 grams and 500 grams of drugs, depending on how his sales had been.

As for the bribery case, an indictment issued on Feb. 2, 2023, accused former Department of Corrections officer Rainier Relado Deleon Guerrero of receiving methamphetamine and $500 cash in exchange for smuggling a cell phone into prison in January 2022.

Qiu and Jiang Guang Zhang, aka Fat Brother, were charged with bribing a public official, and conspiracy to bribe a public official in relation to this case.

Qui pleaded guilty to both cases last year.