Trucker Gets 9 Years for ‘Record-Breaking’ Drug Smuggling Attempt in San Diego

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection canine team checks automobiles for contraband in the line to enter the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Ysidro, Calif., on Oct. 2, 2019. (Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images)

SAN DIEGO—A trucker who was arrested last year after authorities say he was caught with record-breaking amounts of meth and fentanyl inside his truck while trying to cross into the United States at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry was sentenced Oct. 14 to nine years in prison.

Carlos Martin-Quintana-Arias, a Mexican resident whose age was not disclosed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, was arrested on Nov. 18, 2021, after 17,584 pounds of meth and 388.93 pounds of fentanyl were seized from the trailer of his truck.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, both amounts mark the largest seizures of either drug in the entire United States in either 2021 or 2022 thus far.

Prosecutors allege Quintana-Arias’s manifest indicated his trailer contained auto body parts, but “anomalies” were detected in the trailer by both an X-Ray machine and a drug dog on scene.

Officials found 6,266 packages of drugs inside the trailer, which also contained “a few” automotive body parts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Of those packages, 6,106 contained substances that tested positive for meth, while the remaining 160 contained substances that tested positive for fentanyl.

Quintana-Arias pleaded guilty earlier this year to the importation of a controlled substance count.