DETROIT (AP) – A Detroit federal judge has sentenced a Michigan drug dealer to life in prison for hiring a hit man to kill another man in Colorado to avoid paying a $400,000 cocaine debt.

Judge Paul Borman sentenced 31-year-old Enrique Amaya of Pontiac on Monday for conspiracy to commit murder. A jury found Amaya guilty in June.

Borman also sentenced 30-year-old hit man Franklin Sierra-Rodriguez to 40 years and 33-year-old co-defendant Jesus Medina-Meraz of Sheridan, Colo., to 32 years in prison. They pleaded guilty to murder conspiracy.

Detroit U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade says Amaya got multi-pound shipments of cocaine from Colorado. She says he hired Sierra-Rodriquez to kill Joaquin Lucero-Carrillo in his Littleton, Colo., apartment on June 1, 2010.

Three others have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

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