A Mexican national was sentenced to 9 years in prison after attempting to enter the United States with a record-breaking 17,584 pounds of methamphetamine and 389 pounds of fentanyl transported in his commercial trailer.
Carlos Martin Quintana-Arias admitted to driving the drug-laden tractor trailer into the United States through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California. The drugs seized on Nov. 18, 2021, have been declared as the nation’s largest confiscation in each drug category for the calendar years 2021 and 2022 so far, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Quintana-Arias was sentenced on Oct. 14 to 108 months.
Quintana-Arias applied for entry with a manifest that claimed the contents of his trailer as automotive body parts. But anomalies cropped up when the contents were run through an X-ray machine, which alerted officers for further inspection….