A Pharr police officer who noticed Tuesday that several tanker trailers did not have hazard placards resulted in the seizure of an estimated 700 gallons of liquid methamphetamine, which can be converted to nearly 3 tons of the drug, according to a criminal complaint.
The officer happened to be responding to a call for service on an unrelated matter when authorities say he saw three people pouring a liquid substance from large barrels into smaller buckets on an empty property.
The officer approached one of those people, Juan Carlos Toscano Guzman, and began talking to him, according to the complaint.
“During the conversation, Officer Salinas noticed that several tanker trailers on the property did not have hazard placards and notified dispatch,” the complaint states.
The Pharr Fire Department responded and they noticed crystallization around the barrels and in a clear plastic hose hanging across a chain-linked fence, according to the complaint.
Police and firefighters tested the liquid substance within the barrels and it turned out to be positive for methamphetamine.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrived and estimated that there were approximately 700 gallons inside the tanker trailer and in eight 55-gallon barrels.
The DEA says in the charging document that 700 gallons of liquid methamphetamine can be converted to approximately 5,727 pounds of meth.
During an interview with DEA agents, Toscano said he lived in Mexico and recently traveled to the United States after his brother hired him to unload tanker trailers.
“Toscano further admitted that he was to be paid $500 per week for performing this work. Toscano stated that he believed he was loading soap into the tanker trailers,” the complaint said. “Investigators noticed that the substances did not have any odor of soap.”
During a search of his cell phone, investigators saw photos Toscano sent of the 55-gallon barrels to his brother and messages stating that he picked up the “product” from another location in Pharr and transported it to where the officer found him Tuesday, according to the complaint.
“Investigators also observed that Toscano sent pictures and messages to his brother regarding his daily progress of loading the substances in the barrel to the tanker trailer,” the complaint said. “Toscano also sent photographs of the (Pharr) officers to his brother and a second person during the consensual encounter.”
When investigators searched Toscano’s motel room in Hidalgo, the complaint said they found three bottles containing liquid methamphetamine.
Toscano made a first appearance Wednesday morning in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Nadia S. Medrano, who ordered him temporarily held without bond pending detention and probable cause hearings scheduled for next week, court records indicate.
