GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A northern Minnesota woman will spend more than three years behind bars after Grand Forks police found in her bra heroin she intended to sell.
Cynthia Esquivel, 45, of Crookston was sentenced Monday in Grand Forks District Court for possessing heroin with intent to manufacture or deliver, a Class A felony. The charge stems from a July 7 arrest at the Grand Forks Inn, according to court documents.
Esquivel, who was renting a room at the hotel, was on probation for a Polk County charge, but officers searched the room after learning she had a “large amount of heroin.”
When agents made contact with Esquivel, she pulled out a bag from her bra that contained 41 grams of heroin, court documents stated. She told agents she had sold about half an ounce of heroin in the days leading up to her arrest.
Esquivel had faced 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, but she signed a plea deal to be sentenced to six years in prison. Judge Jon Jensen suspended two years of that sentence, and she will be given eight months credit for time served.