EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The U.S. Attorney’s Office is pressing charges against two men accused of delivering 66.1 pounds of methamphetamines to a buyer in the parking lot of an IHOP restaurant in New Mexico.
A source of supply in Durango, Mexico, was trying to distribute the 30 kilos of meth in the United States and began conversations with a buyer who was an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent. Court documents show the trafficker agreed to sell the drugs at a wholesale price of $75,000 and told the undercover agent to expect delivery in the parking lot of the International House of Pancakes restaurant in Roswell, New Mexico.
A silver Chevrolet Suburban arrived at the meeting location at 11:30 a.m. last Tuesday; two men got out and approached undercover DEA agents in a parked vehicle where they believed the buyer was waiting.
Court documents show the individuals later identified as Luis Raul Garcia and Manuel Ignacio Ibarra Lucero allegedly showed the agents six bundles of meth inside the Suburban. At that point, agents who had been staking out the parking lot moved in and arrested the men.
Another 24 bundles were found inside the Suburban. A field test confirmed they contained methamphetamines.
A federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico on Jan. 10 shows Garcia and Ibarra agreed to speak to investigators after their arrest and allegedly admitted to being paid to deliver the drugs. The two have been charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and on Jan. 16 waived their right to a detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, New Mexico.