Round Lake Beach man gets 4 years for selling cocaine

A Round Lake Beach man was sentenced to four years in prison Monday for selling cocaine to undercover police officers.

Lake County Associate Judge Christopher Stride told Mateo Ruiz, 34, that he is likely to be deported when his prison time is complete because he is in this country illegally.

Assistant State's Attorney Rod Drobinski said Ruiz, of the 400 block of Meadowhill Lane, offered to supply cocaine to undercover agents of the Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group in May 2009.

During a meeting in the 300 block of Hastings Lane in Buffalo Grove on May 15 of that year, Ruiz sold about one-half of an ounce of cocaine to an undercover agent in exchange for $450.

A week later at a meeting in the same place, Ruiz sold the agent one ounce of cocaine for $1,000.

Drobinski said Ruiz dropped from sight after the second sale, and MEG agents later tracked him to the Meadowhill Lane address and arrested him on Feb. 3 of this year.

He was ordered held on $75,000 bond, but the federal Department of Homeland Security issued a hold order for Ruiz that prevented his release from jail.

Ruiz was originally charged with delivery of a controlled substance and faced a mandatory prison sentence of six to 30 years.

Drobinski said he agreed to reduce the charge to one carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison in exchange for Ruiz's guilty plea.