URBANA — Two Los Angeles men convicted of bringing about 7 pounds of methamphetamine into Illinois have been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Champaign County Judge Heidi Ladd also ordered Leonel Galaviz-Galaviz, 25, and Jose Canizalez-Cardenas, 35, to pay a street value fine of nearly $629,000 and other fines in excess of $3,000. They were given credit for 299 days already served in the county jail.

The men were convicted by Ladd in a June bench trial of possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine and faced a maximum of 60 years in prison for what the judge called a "staggering" amount of the highly addictive drug.

The two men were arrested on Sept. 29, 2010, by Illinois State Trooper Chris Owen, who had stopped their car on southbound Interstate 57, just north of Rantoul.

Owen's drug-sniffing dog alerted to the presence of drugs, leaping into the Toyota Camry.

A search of the car turned up a secret compartment in the undercarriage where 6.94 pounds of finished methamphetamine had been stashed.

Assistant State's Attorney Sarah Carlson had argued for the 25-year terms for the pair, noting the devastation that could have been wrought on the community by that much methamphetamine.

"Imagine the impact, how many more addicts, how many more families ruined, how many more children in the Department of Children and Family Services, how many more meth labs on fire and police and firefighters hurt," she said.

Carlson said Galaviz-Galaviz and Canizalez-Cardenas claimed to be going from Los Angeles to Chicago but said they got lost. "I have no clue what they were doing here," said the prosecutor.

Defense attorney Harvey Welch of Urbana argued for the minimum sentence of 15 years for the men, neither of whom had prior criminal convictions in the U.S.

Ladd noted that both men were in the United States illegally from Mexico.