Subject Facing Federal Drug Charges After Search of Vehicle Yields 15.6 Kilograms of Methamphetamine

FBI Jackson
23 May 2017

Public Affairs Specialist Brett Carr
(601) 948-5000

A man traveling from Mexico through South Mississippi was arrested by the FBI on Monday, May 22, 2017, and charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Just before 9 a.m. on May 22, 2017, officers with the South Mississippi Metro Enforcement Team (MET) observed a truck towing a utility trailer driving carelessly on Interstate 10 in Jackson County near mile marker 56.

The driver of the vehicle, Andres Torres Sanchez, 59, of Atizapan De Zaragoza, Mexico gave consent to search the truck and trailer. An examination of the undercarriage of the trailer determined that the axles had been altered to conceal narcotics. At that time, the driver and vehicle were transported to a secure location where a thorough search was conducted.

During the subsequent, in-depth, search of the vehicle conducted by members of the FBI’s Pascagoula Safe Streets Task Force and officers from the South Mississippi MET, a total of 15.6 kilograms of methamphetamine, concealed in the hollow axles of the trailer, was located. The methamphetamine had an approximate street value of $200,000.

Sanchez is scheduled to appear before United States Magistrate Judge Robert H. Walker on Tuesday, May 23, 2017, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in Gulfport.

The FBI Safe Streets Task Force is a Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) initiative, and receives funding from the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, D.C. It is made up of special agents from the FBI and law enforcement officers from the Pascagoula, Moss Point, Gautier, and Ocean Springs police departments; the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics; and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.

This charge is merely an accusation. All subjects are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.