May.10, 2010, 05:16:15 PM MDT, Source: The Denver Post

A Mexican citizen described by a federal prosecutors as a drug lord with a distribution hub in Colorado was sentenced to 20 years in prison last Friday.

Miguel Arriola, 42, also was fined $250,000. During the investigation, agents seized almost $10.4 million in cash and 2,300 kilograms of cocaine in arrests across the country, including almost $2 million in Pueblo in 2003.

Arriola was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver in 2003, arrested and extradited from Mexico in 2007, and last November agreed to plead guilty to drug possession, distribution, money laundering and conspiracy charges.

His brother, Oscar Arriola, faces similar charges. He was arrested in Mexico in 2006 and extradited to Colorado in 2008.

According to the charges, Miguel Arriola managed the drug distribution and money laundering operation, while his brother was a "higher-ranking manager," the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver said today.

They imported drugs to Colorado, Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Atlanta and other U.S. locations, prosecutors said.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency investigation into the Arriola network began in Colorado Springs in 2002. Agents discovered a ranch in Peyton in northern El Paso County that served as a distribution hub for the organization.

"Amounts of cocaine arriving at the barn in Peyton, Colorado, from Mexico ranged from 25 kilograms to over 100 kilograms per shipment, which came either bi-monthly or monthly, depending on the supply and need," according to a statement today from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver.