Three men have been charged after authorities seized more than 180 kilograms of cocaine intended for the Houston area and northern states, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced Tuesday.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Pablo Luis Fuentes-Rivas, 40, of Baytown; Efren Pinales-Hernandez, 51, of Weslaco; and Daniel Teniente-Marfileno, 39, a noncitizen without legal status living in Houston, were arrested following a surveillance operation.
The office said, citing court documents, that law enforcement observed the three men in the early morning hours of March 29 at a Baytown truck lot unloading what appeared to be narcotics from a semi-tractor trailer into another vehicle.
The U.S. attorney’s office reported that Teniente-Marfileno drove away from the scene with the suspected narcotics.
Law enforcement conducted a traffic stop shortly after and seized the cocaine bundles from the vehicle, the U.S. attorney’s office noted.
Fuentes-Rivas and Pinales-Hernandez were arrested as they attempted to leave the truck lot, the U.S. attorney’s office added.
The office confirmed that the cocaine weighed 182.25 kilograms and had an estimated street value of nearly $2.3 million.
If convicted, each defendant faces up to life in prison and a possible $10 million fine, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The U.S. attorney’s office noted that the investigation is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation.
OCDETF uses a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven strategy to disrupt and dismantle major drug trafficking organizations by coordinating efforts across federal, state, and local agencies, the office stated.
