A Mexican national caught transporting 15 bricks of cocaine from Texas to Virginia in an SUV will spend years in prison, federal authorities announced.
Jesus Alejandro Ibarra-Morales, 30 was sentenced to four years and four months in prison for intent to distribute cocaine after being arrested in November 2023.
According to court documents, Ibarra-Morales crossed into the US at the Veteran’s International Bridge-Los Tomates Port of Entry at Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville, Texas, using his border crossing card.
At the time, he was driving a Chevy Suburban wtih Mexico license plates.
Prosecutors say that Ibarra-Morales then picked up two car dollies, the axles of which were packed with 15 bricks of cocaine, with a total weight of over 15 kilograms.
Investigators received a tip that a shipment of drugs was being transported from Texas to Richmond, and days after Ibarra-Morales crossed the border, agents learned that the Suburban was near the drop location in Virginia.
The agents were able to stop the vehicle, Ibarra-Morales was identified as the driver, and a police K9 tracked down the drugs on the car dollies, and a search of the axles led to the recovery of the cocaine.