Mexican Trucker arrested with 165 pounds of meth

Mexican is a NATIONALITY
Trucker arrested with 165 pounds of meth
Posted: Wednesday, April 1, 2015 4:44 pm
LORENZO ZAZUETA-CASTRO | STAFF WRITER

Posted on Apr 1, 2015
by

Lorenzo Zazueta

PHARR — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a Mexican man Tuesday after he allegedly tried to enter the country with more than 165 pounds of methamphetamine in a semitrailer he was driving.

Daniel Salvador Gomez-Reyes, of Mexico, who was also transporting cactus and squash, was caught at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge after officers sent his Kenworth semitrailer to a secondary inspection, where officers noticed irregularities with the cargo pallets, according to court records.

During a K-9 inspection, officers found 138 plastic packages filled with a crystal substance later identified as meth, weighing 166 pounds, authorities say.

Gomez, 42, told federal agents he had been a trucker for about three years before he was approached and hired by an unidentified employer that paid him about 5,000 pesos per load and put him in touch with outside business referrals, records show.

Gomez told agents he was not given extra pay for the drug transport and was told failure to deliver the product would result in a reduction of pay by 600 pesos.

He was charged Wednesday with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute a controlled substance, importing of controlled substance, and federal conspiracy with intent to distribute.

http://www.themonitor.com/news/local...52c28e8cb.html

If he had been in the new NAFTA inspired Mexican truck program, this smuggler could have crossed the border without fear of inspection and gotten all those drugs into the blood streams of Americans.

W