A man who made arrangements to send tractor-trailers loaded with drugs from Sinaloa, Mexico, to San Diego pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to conspiracy to import methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.
Jesus Manuel Salazar-Nunez, 35, admitted his crime on the day his case was to go to trial.
Salazar-Nunez was indicted on Sept. 15, 2015, and was arrested the next day when he flew into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport from Guadalajara, Mexico.
That same year, Drug Enforcement Administration agents intercepted the communications of the defendant and others making arrangements for tractor- trailers to travel from Sinaloa, Mexico, to Baja California, Mexico, carrying hundreds of pounds of meth, cocaine and heroin among canned food and drinks, frozen shrimp, vegetable boxes and other household goods.
Once they arrived at a warehouse in Tijuana, the drugs were unloaded, distributed to couriers and smuggled into San Diego, prosecutors said.
In connection with his guilty plea, Salazar-Nunez admitted making arrangements for four tractor-trailers that were seized by Mexican law enforcement, including: a tractor-trailer stopped on March 28, 2015, with about 285 kilograms of methamphetamine, 3 kilograms of heroin and 11 kilograms of cocaine; two tractor-trailers stopped on April 28, 2015, with about 422 kilograms of meth, 38 kilograms of heroin and 4 kilograms of cocaine; and a tractor-trailer stopped on Aug. 21, 2015, with about 165 kilograms of methamphetamine.
Salazar-Nunez is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 9 by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw.
–City News Service
