Plants discovered in a raid by Pueblo police in April 2016. (Provided by Pueblo Sheriff's Office)

4 get federal prison for conspiring to ship weed from Colorado

PUEBLO, Colo. — Four men who conspired to grow marijuana in Colorado to sell it in Florida have been sentenced to federal prison terms.

The Pueblo Chieftain reports that the men were arrested in March 2016 in one of multiple raids conducted last year in Pueblo County.

The ring leader, Dennis Rodriguez, was sentenced to the longest term — 2 ½ years in prison — on Thursday. Judge R. Brooke Jackson sentenced Rodriguez’s brother Angel and Daniel Bingham to 14 months and sentenced Nathaniel Clawson to 15 months.

Three others are awaiting sentencing.

Dennis Rodriguez was accused of recruiting the others to come to Colorado.

Jackson said he hoped the sentences send a message that people who violate marijuana laws will “spend a fair amount of time in prison.”