Drug trafficker pleads guilty to smuggling more than 2 tons of marijuana into U.S.

A 20-year-old Mexican National faces life in prison after pleading guilty to smuggling more than 4,000 pounds of marijuana from Mexico to the United States.

Jorge Monjaraz-Perez entered a guilty plea to conspiring to transport the marijuana Thursday before U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr.

At the hearing, he admitted he conspired with a drug trafficking organization to move at least 1,886 kilograms of marijuana or 4,157 pounds of marijuana, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas stated in a press release.

Monjaraz-Perez also acknowledged running a marijuana stash house in Brownsville and that he participated in at least seven drug trafficking events. Law enforcement seized all the marijuana, each ranging between 91 kilograms and 528 kilograms.

Three others, Reynaldo Gilberto Padilla-Torres, Jose Valles-Resendez, and Sergio Gonzalez-Cruz, also accused in the same case entered guilty pleas to drug smuggling charges. They are scheduled to be sentenced within the next two months.

According to a June 29, 2021, criminal complaint, Monjaraz-Perez and the three others were spotted by U.S. Border Patrol agents patrolling the Brownsville area, near River Bend Resort, running north across U.S. 281 Military Highway. The agents saw one person run into a sorghum field carrying what was suspected to be a bundle of marijuana, the complaint states.

The man was taken into custody and as the agents continued to search the sorghum field, they found seven additional bundles of marijuana, which totaled over 200 pounds of marijuana.

According to the complaint, Monjaraz-Perez and the three others admitted to smuggling the marijuana from Mexico into the U.S.

Monjarez-Perez remains on bond pending his April 19, sentencing hearing.

The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration conducted the investigation with the assistance of Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney David A. Lindenmuth is prosecuting the case.