Jose Domingo Jasso-Topete, Marijuana Trafficking, New Mexico 2012

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A Mexican national has pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute over 3,000 kilograms of marijuana in New Mexico.

Jose Domingo Jasso-Topete, 34, a Mexican national illegally present in the United States, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and possession of more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana with intent to distribute.

The guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales and Special Agent in Charge Dennis A. Ulrich, II, of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in El Paso, Texas.

Jasso-Topete is one of eight Mexican nationals arrested on March 24, 2012, by U.S. Border Patrol agents after agents observed five vehicles breach the International Border Fence south of Animas, N.M.

The agents conducted surveillance as the vehicles drove northbound in a convoy and moved in when four of the vehicles crashed into each other. The agents eventually apprehended eight individuals and took control of the four vehicles which contained approximately 3,154 kilograms of marijuana.

During today’s proceedings, Jasso-Topete entered guilty pleas to Counts 1 and 2 of the indictment charging him with conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Jasso-Topete faces a prison sentence of not less than ten years and not more than life imprisonment. He will be deported after he completes his prison sentence. Jasso-Topete has been in federal custody since his arrest and remains detained pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

The case was investigated by the Deming, N.M., office of HSI and the Lordsburg, N.M., office of the U.S. Border Patrol, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edwin Garreth Winstead, III, of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.

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