Convicted Burbank Drug Dealer Gets 12 Years In The Slammer

BURBANK, IL — A convicted Burbank drug dealer will spend the next 12-years in a federal prison. Efren Gutierrez, 44, was sentenced the day before Christmas by U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall. Gutierrez had pleaded guilty to earlier this year to federal drug and gun charges.

“Over the past few years, the Chicagoland area has been subjected to devastating firearm violence,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Cornelius A. Vandenberg stated in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “The sale of narcotics and the possession of firearms by felons is behavior that will not be tolerated by the federal government.”

Law enforcement raided Gutierrez’s Burbank home with a search warrant on Dec. 6, 2017. Federal prosecutors said officers found a loaded 45-caliber gun hidden in a diaper bag in his bedroom. Gutierrez had past felony convictions in state court, including drug and gun offenses, and was not legally allowed to possess a gun, the feds said. The search also produced large quantities of marijuana, cocaine and 98-percent pure methamphetamine, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.

Gutierrez admitted in a plea agreement that he kept the gun and ammunition to protect his drug business, federal prosecutors said.