Miguel Alejandro Robles-Ibarra Pleads Guilty to Meth Conspiracy

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The last domino has fallen in a cross-country methamphetamine pipeline stretching from California to the heart of Appalachia. Miguel Alejandro Robles-Ibarra, 30, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine, capping a federal crackdown on a network that used spare tires and unwitting mules to flood West Virginia with crystal meth.

Robles-Ibarra admitted in court that between February and March 2016, he helped package and ship ten pounds of crystal methamphetamine concealed inside the spare tire of a vehicle in California. The first shipment reached Kentucky, where codefendant Brian Ashby, of Charleston, picked it up after traveling from West Virginia. Two women — Kelly Newcomb, of Nevada, and Danielle Dessaray Estrada, of Los Angeles — drove the car cross-country, later pleading guilty to interstate travel in furtherance of a drug crime. Robles-Ibarra took a cut of the cash Ashby paid for the drugs.

He admitted to a second identical shipment in March 2016 — another ten pounds of meth hidden in a spare tire, this time destined for Huntington, West Virginia. But this time, he never saw a dime. Law enforcement intercepted the operation. Robles-Ibarra was arrested in West Virginia while en route to collect payment from Ashby. A fingerprint matching his was lifted from the tire well where the drugs were stashed — the evidence that sealed his fate.

The case exploded into a sweeping multi-defendant indictment, the result of a joint investigation by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Charleston Police Department, and the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team. Daniel Ortiz-Rivera, another Mexican national, is already serving 12 years and seven months for his role. Marco Antonio Bojorquez-Rojas received 18 months for interstate drug-related travel.

Others who have pleaded guilty and await sentencing include Cara Linn Monasmith, of Nevada — used as a courier — and a web of suppliers and middlemen: Rafael Garcia Serrato and Cesar Garcia, both of Los Angeles; Velarian Sylvester Carter, of Beckley; Miguel Tafolla-Montoya, a Mexican national; and Ashby, of Kanawha County. All admitted to conspiring to distribute more than 50 grams of meth.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Rada Herrald is prosecuting the cases. U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr., is presiding. The Southern District of West Virginia vows this is not the end. With open-air markets and pill mills under siege, the office says it will continue dismantling drug networks one arrest, one guilty plea, one fingerprint at a time.