HSI Nogales investigation results in truck driver’s 9-year sentence for meth offenses

NOGALES, Ariz. — On July 11, a judge sentenced Hector Francisco Ramirez-Roman, 39, of San Luis, Rio Colorado, Mexico, to 108 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release for posing with intent to distribute methamphetamine. The sentence follows an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The judge also ordered Ramirez-Roman to pay a $100 special assessment. He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped Ramirez-Roman on May 21, 2021, while he crossed from Mexico into the United States driving his semitractor-trailer loaded with cucumbers. Upon inspection, agents discovered that the passenger-side gas tank was filled with a combination of gasoline and liquified methamphetamine. Authorities removed more than 332 kilograms of methamphetamine — approximately 1.3 million individual doses — from the gas tank.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David P. Petermann for the District of Arizona in Tucson prosecuted the case.

HSI is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of more than 8,700 employees consists of more than 6,000 special agents assigned to 237 cities throughout the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.