Court in San Antonio sentenced a Mexican national to 27 years in prison for leading an international methamphetamine trafficking

A federal court in San Antonio sentenced a Mexican national to 27 years in prison for leading an international methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy that moved well over 1,000 kilograms (2,204.6 pounds) of the drug from Mexico into the San Antonio area, hidden inside shipments of lettuce. U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Justin R. Simmons announced the sentence for Arturo Leija-Alvarado, 43, who had been convicted twice of illegal reentry and removed from the country at least three times before reentering again in the spring of 2024. By that May, he was already coordinating a shipment hidden in 16 pallets of lettuce, and he went on to run several more large loads that summer, including one September shipment of roughly 500 kilograms (1,102.3 pounds). His organization received the drugs at a secluded property in Atascosa, Texas, then distributed them into the San Antonio area. Investigators obtained a search warrant for the Atascosa property and, on October 18, 2024, found dozens of packages of methamphetamine wrapped in tape and grease inside welded hidden compartments in a trailer. DEA lab testing confirmed the packages seized that day held 63 kilograms (138.9 pounds) of 100 percent pure crystal meth. Agents arrested Leija inside an RV on the property, where they found a firearm and $21,646 in cash, and recovered a second firearm elsewhere on the property. Authorities also arrested co-conspirators Francis Edward "Eddie" Hilliard and Richard William Aaron Patton. All three pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. Hilliard, 77, received a 145-month sentence last month, and Patton is scheduled to be sentenced later this month. Simmons said Leija ignored the country's immigration, drug, and gun laws alike and will now spend the next couple of decades in prison for it, and he thanked the law enforcement partners who built the case along with Assistant U.S. Attorney John Fedock, who prosecuted it. DEA San Antonio Special Agent in Charge Miguel Madrigal said traffickers like Leija bring violence and endanger American lives with every shipment, and he credited DEA San Antonio and its partners with keeping thousands of lethal doses of methamphetamine out of San Antonio and other communities.