EDINBURG: A Roma man was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday for his role in connection with a conspiracy to smuggle marijuana, federal authorities announced Thursday.
Alberto Garza III received a six and a half year sentence for his role in smuggling marijuana from Starr County into Hidalgo County, according to court records.
Prosecutors said Homeland Security Investigations agents working alongside undercover Pharr police officers were ordered to transport several loads of marijuana for Garza within the Rio Grande Valley on June 11, 2013.
The agents tracked the vehicle, a Ford Excursion, which was to be used to transport the marijuana, according to a criminal complaint.
Two days later agents were instructed to leave the SUV at a fast-food restaurant in Roma so that it could be used by other drug smugglers, the complaint states.
Prosecutors said agents observed Garza drive the Excursion to a store parking lot in Escobares where he left it for another group of drug smugglers who then drove it to a residence in the McAllen area and loaded it up with marijuana bundles.
The SUV was returned to the store in Escobares where an undercover officer was ordered to pick it up, documents show.
Authorities said Garza directed the undercover officer to drop the SUV off at a meat market in San Juan where a different group of smugglers took the SUV and unloaded it at a residence in the 800 block of Oblate Street. The SUV, now empty, was returned to the meat market where the undercover officer was once again instructed by Garza to drive it back to Rio Grande City to pick up another load of marijuana, records show.
This process repeated itself several times over, with the 30-year-old man coordinating the drop offs and pickups for the undercover officers and ultimately came to an end when HSI agents executed a search warrant at the residence in San Juan and seized more than 13,500 pounds of marijuana, prosecutors said.
