Former Maricopa County Deputy Public Defender Sally Joyce Nyemba has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for drug trafficking, officials said. The 33-year-old lawyer from Phoenix was sentenced on Monday by U.S. District Judge Susan M. Brnovich after pleading guilty last year to Attempted Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine, according to the Justice Department.
Nyemba, who was arrested in May 2020, was caught in a sting operation attempting to quickly finalize a drug deal for two pounds of methamphetamine and thousands of narcotic pills. On May 11 and 12, Nyemba negotiated the purchase of the drugs for nearly $14,000 from an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, court documents revealed. She handed over $3,600 cash for the meth before agents arrested her and confiscated an additional $14,158 found in her vehicle, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona.
This case resulted from an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation, focusing on taking down high-level criminal organizations that pose a threat to the United States. Nyemba’s arrest was made possible through the coordinated efforts of the DEA East Valley Drug Enforcement Task Force and prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Arizona.
Additional information about Nyemba’s case (CR-21-01094-PHX-SMB) and the OCDETF program can be found online. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona urges the public to correctly stay informed about such prosecutions by following their updates on social media platforms like X @USAO_AZ.
