A 50-year-old Robstown man was sentenced Wednesday to 60 months in federal prison after a routine traffic stop on State Highway 44 turned into a 100 mph chase that ended with him hurling two kilograms of cocaine out of his car window. Michael Casas had pleaded guilty in May to federal cocaine distribution charges tied to a planned drug sale, and a judge finally handed down his punishment nearly five months later.
U.S. District Judge David S. Morales sentenced Casas to five years in federal prison followed by four years of supervised release, according to kiiitv.com. Casas will remain free on bond until he is summoned to voluntarily surrender to a federal Bureau of Prisons facility, the station reports — a notably different arrangement than some other pursuit cases have seen in the same district.
According to the seed story shared by the US Attorney SDTX, Casas was sentenced after fleeing from police in a high-speed chase that followed a drug transaction. The Department of Justice laid out the sequence in more detail: the March 17 incident began as a traffic stop on Highway 44 in Corpus Christi, where Casas accelerated past 100 mph before tossing a brick-shaped package containing two kilograms of cocaine from his vehicle window and eventually surrendering.
A Joint DEA and Local Investigation
The case was investigated jointly by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Corpus Christi Police Department, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Griffith prosecuting the case for the Southern District of Texas, per the same DOJ account. The sentence reflects the statutory mandatory minimum under federal law: convictions involving 500 grams or more of cocaine trigger a required minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of up to 40 years, according to the Legal Information Institute.
State Highway 44 is a 128.8-mile arterial route connecting Robstown and Corpus Christi to inland South Texas, passing Corpus Christi International Airport along the way, per Wikipedia. It is a stretch of road that has seen its share of law enforcement drama before Casas ever hit the gas.
Robstown's History With High-Speed Pursuits
Casas is not the first Robstown resident to end up in federal custody after a chase in this district. In November 2025, federal prosecutors sentenced 45-year-old Robstown resident Guadalupe Calderon III to 15 years in prison after he pointed a handgun at a Nueces County deputy during a traffic stop and then fled in his vehicle, according to the Department of Justice.
Further back, in September 2020, federal authorities in Corpus Christi secured a 25-year sentence for a 26-year-old man who led police on a 20-minute chase exceeding 120 mph while transporting cocaine and a firearm, the Department of Justice noted. And in April 2021, 39-year-old Robstown resident and gang member Rudy Reyna was sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy that trafficked 17 kilograms of cocaine across the Coastal Bend region, the agency reported.
Those cases involved firearms or gang trafficking conspiracies that drew far longer sentences than Casas received. Joint narcotics interdiction efforts between the DEA and local law enforcement in Nueces County remain active, including a series of tactical search warrants executed in Corpus Christi in July, according to a Facebook post documenting the operations. For now, Casas is left waiting for his call from the Bureau of Prisons, free on bond until that day arrives.
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