The Mexican Meth Connection

On the map, it’s no easy feat to transport drugs all the way from Mexico to Washington State. But the map lies a little bit. Once the drugs have cleared enforcement at the border, the only thing that remains is a long drive. We aren’t the sort of country that has checkpoints between every city.

This last week there was another meth bust on I-5 North bound. This time, Washington resident, Froylan Garcia, was stopped just before entering the state by Oregon troopers. They must have been suspicious of the 2005 Nissan, because they called in the drug dog. After the dog alerted, troopers had probable cause to search the vehicle. They discovered, wrapped tightly in Tupperware containers, 2.5 pounds of crystal meth, a street value of about $60,000.

Other stories point to a major connection to Mexican drug cartels moving methamphetamine into our state. It was just six months ago that a major investigation led to the arrest of a Monroe man with connections to “La Familia” a notorious Mexican drug cartel. He got 20 years from a Seattle judge after being convicted of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and weapons charges.

In April of this year, a whopping 17 pounds of methamphetamine was discovered by Oregon troopers in an eerily similar incident involving a Nissan heading north on I-5. That arrest was of a Seattle man, Francisco Hernandez-Figueroa.

Some blame harsher laws on procuring the precursor to meth manufacture – pseudoephedrine. Since it has become more tightly regulated, it seems that now it is more cost effective to simply import the finished crystal meth from Mexico than to try and “cook” it locally. In fact, busts of meth labs are down, while these arrest for traveling (in a Nissan?) with meth have become more common.