Two Mexican nationals are facing hard time for a high-stakes meth smuggling operation, after a Texas court doled out hefty prison sentences on Thursday. Noe De Jesus Martinez-Montelongo, 36, and Fidel Rodriguez-Saldana, 35, both from Nuevo Leon, Mexico, were each slapped with a 235-month stint behind bars for trying to sneak a whopping 910 pounds of methamphetamine into the United States, the U.S. Attorney's Office reported.
According to a Justice Department release, the duo's smuggling attempt was foiled on Nov. 28, 2022, when they tried to cross into the U.S. at the Columbia Solidarity port of entry in Laredo, Texas in a tractor-trailer. The vehicle, supposedly without a load, was subjected to a secondary inspection after a drug-sniffing dog raised the alarm.
A thorough search by law enforcement exposed secret compartments within the tractor's diesel tanks. The hideaways were holding 22 buckets filled with liquid meth, all told weighing in at 413 kilograms. A jury didn't buy the smugglers' claims of ignorance during an August trial, where the men insisted they were in Laredo to pick up a legitimate shipment. Instead, they were convicted on Aug. 23, 2023, following three days of deliberations.
U.S. District Judge Diana Saldana, while imposing the sentences, pointed to the "large amount of liquid narcotics" that Martinez-Montelongo and Rodriguez-Saldana were attempting to introduce into the country, the same narcotics that carried an estimated wholesale value of roughly $1 million. After completing their prison terms, the smugglers are also set to endure five years of supervised release, consistent with court documents, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The meth seizure and subsequent trial were the result of a Homeland Security Investigations operation. The Justice Department confirmed Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Makens and Brandon Bowling as the lead prosecutors for the case. Martinez-Montelongo and Rodriguez-Saldana are now awaiting transfer to a federal prison where they will begin to serve their sentences.
