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A traffic stop by a Hidalgo County constable resulted in the discovery of nearly 3,000 pounds of methamphetamine hidden inside a shipment of cabbage.
This happened on Tuesday when the constable pulled over a tractor-trailer in Pharr and identified Jose Angel Ibarra Rojas as a passenger in the vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.
The constable gained consent to search the tractor-trailer cab, the trailer and all of its content, which is when the constable found a “plastic wrapped crystal-like substance concealed within the shipment of cabbage in the cargo section of the tractor trailer.”
Homeland Security Investigations special agents were called to the scene and transported the tractor-trailer to the Pharr Port of Entry where U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers extracted a total of 1,154 packages from the cabbage shipment that tested positive for meth and had an approximate weight of 2,989 pounds.
During an interview, Ibarra told agents he knew about the drugs and that he would be paid $1,000 to arrange for the transport of the trailer of meth further north, according to the complaint.
“Ibarra stated that he has done this several times in the past,” the complaint stated.
Ibarra was scheduled to make a first appearance Thursday morning in McAllen federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker.
