A California man who treated Tampa International Airport like a drug pipeline will be spending more than two decades in federal prison. On Feb. 27, 2026, 32-year-old Jacob Paul Arjona of Bakersfield was sentenced to 24 years and six months after prosecutors said he orchestrated a cross-country methamphetamine trafficking scheme that pushed roughly 132 pounds of the drug through the busy Florida hub. Investigators say Arjona recruited two couriers to fly the meth from Los Angeles to Tampa on May 3, 2023. The new prison term will run at the same time as a separate federal sentence Arjona is already serving.
How investigators say the plot unfolded
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida, Arjona recruited Hernan Cruz-Moreno and Agustin Ortiz-Sanchez to pack more than 120 pounds of methamphetamine into luggage and board a flight from Los Angeles to Tampa on May 3, 2023. Federal agents intercepted the couriers at Tampa International Airport and seized their suitcases. Lab testing and travel records later linked the shipment back to Arjona, and authorities say he traveled separately to Florida to oversee distribution once the load arrived.
"The coordination and cooperation by our law enforcement partners were effective in disrupting the trafficking of methamphetamine from coast to coast," U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe said in the announcement from the U.S. Attorney's Office. The filing notes that Arjona has been in custody since Feb. 25, 2025 and entered a guilty plea on Nov. 19, 2025.
Evidence that tied the organizer
Homeland Security Investigations agents matched a fingerprint found on packaging from the seized narcotics to Arjona, and airline and baggage records showed he flew into Tampa and later left from Orlando that same day, according to local reporting. That coverage also notes that one courier later pleaded guilty and received a multi-year sentence, while the other was released on bond, fled, and is still at large. These operational details were reported by WOKV.
Sentences and co-defendants
Arjona’s 24-year, 6-month sentence has been widely noted by regional outlets and local sites that republished the federal release; West Orlando News recapped the court filing and key dates. The new term will run concurrent with an earlier federal sentence Arjona received in August 2025, reported at the time as an earlier 17-year term. Prosecutors say Hernan Cruz-Moreno pleaded guilty and was sentenced in April 2024 to seven years and three months, while Agustin Ortiz-Sanchez fled and remains a fugitive.
Local enforcement response
HSI Tampa acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge Michael Calvo warned that "Illicit narcotics like methamphetamine pose a grave threat that destroys lives, tears apart families, and undermines the safety and well-being of neighborhoods across the country," language that appeared in local coverage. Officials credited a joint effort by Homeland Security Investigations and the Tampa International Airport Police Department with intercepting the shipment, according to WOKV.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says the case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney E. Jackson Boggs, Jr., following a multi-agency investigation. Local outlets that republished the federal announcement laid out the procedural timeline and relayed officials’ request that anyone with information about the fugitive co-defendant contact federal investigators, according to West Orlando News.
