Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, the admitted drug smuggler at the center of a national controversy over the imprisonment of two former Border Patrol agents who shot him in the buttocks in February 2005, was sentenced Wednesday to 9 1/2 years in federal prison, the El Paso Times reported.

Aldrete Davila, 27, will serve two consecutive sentences of 57 months each after pleading guilty in April to four counts of possession or intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana, the Times reported.

After serving his prison time, he will be placed on 10 years of supervised release, the paper reported.

Aldrete Davila was shot while fleeing from Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos near Fabens, Texas, in 2005, after he abandoned a van filled with marijuana, according to the Times.

He was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying against Compean and Ramos, who were found guilty of violating Aldrete Davila's civil rights and tampering with evidence, the paper said.

Compean was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison, and Ramos to 11 years, in large part due to a 10-year mandatory firearm enhancement that was upheld on appeal last month.

But during the former agents' trial, Aldrete Davila was arrested for smuggling marijuana again, the Times reported.

The Mexican national said at his sentencing hearing Wednesday that he had been forced to smuggle 1,400 pounds of marijuana to cover a debt from a former failed smuggling attempt, the paper said.

6:20am 7/29/08 -- Ex-Border Agents Lose Appeal: Mandatory 10-year firearms sentences upheld in shooting of admitted drug smuggler.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the mandatory 10-year prison sentences now being served by former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, the El Paso Times reported.

The former agents were convicted of civil-rights violations by a U.S. District Court jury in 2006 after shooting an admitted drug smuggler, then trying to cover it up, the Times reported.

Ramos was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and Compean to 12 years, with the bulk of the time due to a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence on a federal charge of discharge of a firearm in the commission of a crime, according to the Times.

The three-judge panel on Monday upheld all the convictions except for one of tampering with proceedings because the Border Patrol investigation did not fall under the relevant statutes, the paper said.

The panel also found that the firearms enhancement does not exclude law enforcement officers, the Times reported.

Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, the Mexican drug smuggler at the heart of the case, was shot in the buttocks in February 2005 as he tried to flee into Mexico after abandoning a van filled with marijuana, the paper said.

The agents claimed they had shot the man in self-defense and admitted it was a mistake not to have reported it to superiors, according to the Times.

Aldrete Davila is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 6 after pleading guilty to smuggling more than 100 kilos of marijuana in the fall of 2005 -- several months after the shooting incident near Fabens, Texas.

The smuggler faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to 40 years in prison, the Times reported.

Following the failure of the appeal, supporters of Ramos and Compean in Congress have renewed their calls on President Bush to commute the former agents' sentences, the paper said.