Mexican national arrested on suspicion of trafficking 128 pounds of meth in Arizona

PHOENIX — A federal grand jury indicted a 20-year-old man from Mexico for trying to distribute methamphetamine in Arizona last week, according to The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.

Rudy Vasquez Cervantes had over 128 pounds of methamphetamine in his car, the office said Friday. He allegedly hid the drugs under his car floor between the back seat and trunk.

A conviction for possessing and selling methamphetamine comes with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the office said. That includes a $1 million fine along with a lifetime of supervised release.

Methamphetamines are the No. 1 drug threat in the state, according to the Arizona High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. 

Moreover, meth was the highest contributor to Maricopa and Pima County overdoses in 2019. A total of 670 residents of those counties died from meth overdoses in the year.

More recent studies from the American Addiction Centers found that Phoenix and Mesa had the country’s highest rates of methamphetamine overall in the U.S.

Cervantes is from Mexicali, the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California.