Schaumburg man gets 8 years for meth shipment

A Schaumburg man received an 8-year prison sentence Thursday for accepting a shipment of methamphetamine by mail at his home in 2007.

Monico Albiola told U.S. District Court he wanted to "thank the Lord ... for (the) divine intervention" of his arrest. He apologized to U.S. District Court Judge Charles Norgle and more than a dozen family members who were present in court.

Investigators caught on to Albiola's drug shipment when a drug dog at O'Hare airport came across a package from Arizona to Albiola's home on the 1300 block of Cambia Drive. The package contained a coffee maker, complete with two clear plastic bags of methamphetamine inside the coffee pot, according to a criminal complaint in the case.

Authorities then set up a sting, placing an electronic device inside the package that would alert them when the package was opened, and delivered it to Albiola's home via undercover agent.

Albiola was arrested after he signed for the package and opened it May 11, 2007. He was convicted on May 30 of this year after a jury trial.

His attorney John Theis said Albiola was under stress at the time of the arrest, "trying to hold onto a house and keep a family together."

Assistant U.S. Attorney acknowledged that after his conviction, Albiola relayed details of his crimes to prosecutors, including admitting to prior shipments of methamphetamine.

The talk with prosecutors allowed Albiola to avoid a statutory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. Norgle sentenced him to 97 months in prison, the low end of recommended sentencing guidelines.