Mexican gets 3 years for smuggling heroin to Texas
Mexican woman gets 3 years in US prison for smuggling heroin to Texas in airline luggage
HOUSTON (AP) -- An airline passenger from Mexico caught in Texas with nearly 4 pounds of heroin in her suitcases has been sentenced to three years in prison.
A federal judge in Houston sentenced 21-year-old Yessica Chanel Cabanillas-Torres. She pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin.
Cabanillas-Torres told investigators she was a law school student when she was arrested last October at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. She arrived on a United Airlines flight from Quito, Ecuador, and was then heading to Newark, N.J.
Cabanillas-Torres said she was paid $4,000 to transport two suitcases with the drugs to Newark to an unidentified contact. The heroin was smuggled inside the walls of the bags.
Cabanillas-Torres, who was sentenced Friday, faces possible deportation following her release from prison.
