Mexican National Sentenced To Prison For Conspiring To Distribute Narcotics

Friday, September 20, 2024, 6:45 A.M. ET. By 2 Minutes, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News, 

BROWNSVILLE, TX.- On Wednesday, September 18, 2024, U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani reported that a 56-year-old Mexican national, a former Mexican Police Officer, residing in the Brownsville, Texas area, appeared in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and was sentenced following his conviction for Conspiracy with Intent to Distribute Cocaine, Heroin, and Fentanyl into the United States.

     On April 26, 2024, a federal jury convicted Gilberto Almaraz-Muniz, 56, of one count of Conspiracy; and three counts of Possession with Intent to Distribute Controlled Dangerous Substances following a five-day trial.

Almaraz-Muniz Sentenced To Federal Prison

     During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Rolando Olvera sentenced Almaraz-Muniz to 250 months in federal prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. At the hearing, Judge Olvera heard additional information detailing the extensive elements of the conspiracy that Almaraz-Muniz led. In handing down the sentence, Judge Olvera noted that Almaraz-Muniz specifically used younger individuals to carry out the transportation and smuggling of illicit narcotics.

     On March 10, 2022, law enforcement officials conducted a narcotics seizure in Klegberg County, Texas. During the seizure, authorities arrested co-conspirator Pedro Venegas, Jr., 24, in Brownsville, Texas.

Agents Discover Narcotics

     Once law enforcement officials noticed tampering with the engine, they took his truck to a secure location to remove the engine’s manifold and other truck components. After removing certain parts of the engine, the inner workings revealed 23 bundles of heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. The truck’s 6-cylinder engine had been modified to make it appear like an 8-cylinder to keep the illicit narcotics hidden within those areas.

    Further evidence showed co-conspirator Jetzrael Saldana, 26, of Brownsville, recruited Venegas as a driver on behalf of Almarez-Muniz, who was a law enforcement official in Mexico and operated as the drug supplier.

     During the trial, witnesses testified that Almaraz-Muniz would ask Saldana to recruit drivers to transport drug loads past immigration checkpoints for distribution in Houston and other areas. Almaraz-Muniz would then arrange for the vehicles to be titled and registered in the drivers’ names and have them do “dry runs” crossing the port of entry several times before hiding the illicit narcotics within the vehicles.

     At the time of trial, the jury heard further additional evidence about two other drug seizures during which Almarez-Muniz hired drivers to deliver narcotics. The seizures included 83 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine at the Gateway International Bridge in Brownsville on July 17, 2022, and a 24-kilogram seizure of black tar heroin in Robstown, Texas, on September 26, 2022.

     Almaraz-Muniz has been and will remain in U.S. custody, pending transfer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence.