Paul Longoria was sentenced this week to 12 years in federal prison on felony drug charges.

Paul Longoria will have years behind bars to reflect on his decision to turn a Forsyth County fence company into a front for cocaine trafficking.
Longoria was sentenced this week to 12 years in federal prison on felony drug charges. He was ordered to serve another five years on probation after his release, said Patrick Crosby, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta.
Longoria was arrested in May 2007 at Crown Fence in northern Forsyth County. The company was undistinguished from the thousands of small businesses that fill office parks across Forsyth County and metro Atlanta, but for one unusual detail: Refrigerated trucks kept showing up.Authorities said that's ultimately what prompted another tenant of the office park to raise the red flag.Longoria and two others were accused of bringing large shipments of cocaine by tractor-trailer from Texas to Crown Fence in a small business park off Brown's Bridge Road.
On May 3, 2007, agents with the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office and federal DEA found 200 kilograms of cocaine in a nonworking walk-in freezer at the fence company's warehouse.The cocaine, which authorities say likely was destined for sale on the eastern seaboard, reportedly was transported under a load of vegetables.Longoria initially pleaded innocent to the drug charges but changed his plea to guilty in May.At the sentencing hearing, Longoria and several members of his family pleaded with U.S. District Court Judge Charles A. Pannell Jr. for leniency, Crosby said.He said Longoria had no prior record for any serious offense.