Ricardo Garza Ramirez pleaded guilty to drug
conspiracy just moments before his trial was about to start before U.S.
District Judge Micaela Alvarez.
Garza, 55, is due back in court in November where he
faces a possible life term in prison for the charge.
Court records obtained by Breitbart Texas establish
federal agents were tipped off to Garza’s BMW sedan in January by a smuggler
they caught with more than 30 pounds of marijuana. The smuggler said he had
been driving in tandem with a Ford Escort, which the agents were able to
identify.
As part of their investigation, the agents learned
that the Ford Escort had also been working with a BMW sedan, which the agents
spotted on June 17 and stopped. Inside the vehicle the agents found more than
30 pounds of cocaine that had been hidden.
Court records give details of an interview following
his arrest, where Garza told some agents with Homeland Security Investigations
that some unidentified men had bought the car and put it under his name telling
him to drive it into the U.S when told to.
On the days that he was to pick up the vehicle,
Garza would go to an area near the Pharr- Reynosa International Bridge, pick up
the vehicle, and drive it over to the U.S. side where he would leave the car
parked outside of a shopping center and would return hours later to pick it up.
For the frequent trips, the man was paid between $200 and $300 which was his
only source of income, court records show.
“Mexican drug trafficking organizations have been in
control of every major drug market in the U.S. for a long time,” DEA spokesman
Rusty Payne told FNL.
Payne added that the cartels try to keep the violence
in the U.S. to a minimum to detract from any unwanted attention from law
enforcement authorities.
“The Mexican drug war has not spilled into the
U.S.,” Payne said. “They’re not here to cause havoc. They know it’s bad for
business and that they have to be well-behaved.”
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