EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Three New Mexico men are facing drug charges in connection with an alleged failed attempt to take 420 pounds of marijuana from the Mexican border to oil-rich Odessa, Texas.
Andrew James Luong, Eric Franklin and Patrick Dwayne Adams came on law enforcement’s radar after a Chevrolet Silverado pickup pulling a horse trailer tried to circumvent a Border Patrol highway checkpoint between Presidio and Alpine, Texas, last week, federal court records show.
The trailer was bearing license plates registered to Jose Anchondo, whom Border Patrol agents describe as a known smuggler. Records show Anchondo was sentenced on March 5 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to four months in prison and three years of probation on a count of transportation of illegal aliens for profit.
The driver of the Silverado pulling the horse trailer, as well as two men in a Cadillac Escalade traveling in tandem with the pickup were escorted to the Border Patrol checkpoint, where a canine officer alerted agents to the marijuana stashed in a hidden compartment on the trailer.
In separate interviews with agents, the men identified themselves as Hobbs, New Mexico, residents and said they were giving Luong a ride to a job in Presidio, across the border from Ojinaga, Mexico. However, a consensual search of Franklin’s and Adams’ cellphones revealed messages alluding to a drug transaction and a $3,000 fee “for six hours or work,” federal court records show.
A background search revealed the three suspects had active criminal arrest warrants in the state of New Mexico.
Luong, Franklin and Adams have been charged with conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. A federal judge on March 22 ordered them held without bond.
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