Hiding drugs? Two traffickers in Texas learn that gas tank is not a good spot, feds say.
Memo to would-be drug traffickers. Your gas tank is not a good hiding place for drugs in Texas.
It is a lesson that Jorge Alberto Garcia-Gamez will have 135 months in prison to think about after he was sentenced by a federal judge for trafficking methamphetamines. Sandra Araceli Diaz Vazquez, 37, faces 10 years to life in prison after officers found drugs in her vehicle's gas tank.
According to prosecutors, authorities stopped Garcia-Gamez and Diaz Vazquez in separate incidents and a subsequent search of their vehicles turned up the drugs – in the gas tanks.
Last September, prosecutors say, at a checkpoint near Marfa, U.S. Border Patrol agents found in Garcia-Gamez's vehicle "76 vacuum-sealed bundles containing 37.85 kilograms of methamphetamine in the vehicle’s fuel tank." Prosecutors say Garcia-Gamez, 45, was hauling the drugs for Mexican drug traffickers. He pleaded guilty on Nov. 17 and was sentenced for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
In December, prosecutors say, officers stopped Diaz Vazquez on Interstate 20 near Colorado City for moving violations. She agreed to a vehicle search and officers found "approximately 20.2 kilograms of methamphetamine and 5.6 kilograms of fentanyl concealed within the fuel tank."
Diaz Vazquez pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine. She is scheduled to be sentenced May 29. She faces 10 years to life in prison.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Feds in Texas say traffickers tried hiding drugs in vehicle gas tanks
