Border Patrol canine discovers pills stashed inside a car while the FBI leans of buying drugs at a Lower Valley room.
Gael Alejandro Carranza Gutierrez and Leslie Hernandez were apprehended on Thursday after a secret cause alerted the FBI to a significant medicine purchase that had occurred that evening.
Prior to the purchase, the agents were accused of learning in a criminal complaint filed on June 3 in the Northern District of Texas that Carranza may be transporting fentanyl from Arizona to an house on the 600 block of North Carolina Drive. A bright Humvee with Texas license plates that left the apartment complex parking bit was followed by the FBI and local law enforcement who set up security in the area.
According to documents, an El Paso County officer stopped Hernandez ‘ Humvee for a traffic stop. The woman reportedly consented to the constable’s car search. The sheriff called for a U.S. Border Patrol canine unit to help with the search after recording the traffic stop using a body cameras.
Law enforcement officers were led by the dog to a case that contained 11 clear plastic medications purportedly containing fentanyl. The drugs had a total weight of 6.18 kilograms ( 13.6 pounds ), court documents show. Officials arrested Hernandez and Carranza, who was a rider in the Humvee.
Carranza reportedly claimed in separate conversations that he had transported narcotics from Arizona to an El Paso person. Hernandez reportedly told investigators that she was supposed to give the drugs to an unidentified man and that she would receive a portion of the proceeds from the sales.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is illegal and has a 50-fold higher potency than morphine. National health authorities have linked fentanyl to many of the 100, 000 or more overdose deaths reported annually across the country. Opioid pills cost significantly more depending on the region, whether they are purchased wholesale from dealers or wholesale on the street.
Carranza and Hernandez are facing a charge of distributing fentanyl with intention. In an El Paso provincial court on June 6, they are scheduled to make an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Miguel A. Torres.
