Three men who say they’re from Guatemala were caught hauling 170 pounds of marijuana through Wyoming’s Sweetwater County, court documents say.
Department of Homeland Security officials have asked for biometric information on one of the men, and are requesting deportation of at least one more.
Edgar Jimenez Hernandez, who is either 21 or 22 (court documents give different dates of birth), faces one charge of conspiring to deliver marijuana and another of speeding on claims he was the driver in a large marijuana haul Aug. 3. His case rose to the felony-level Sweetwater County District Court on Wednesday.
Eduardo Martin Sales, 31, aka Arnulfo Perez Gomez, also faces a marijuana conspiracy charge, as does Raul Martin Lopez, 33.
All three men’s conspiracy delivery charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Lopez also faces a misdemeanor for allegedly fleeing state troopers, punishable by up to one year in jail and $1,000 in fines.
Smells Like Weed
The investigation started around 9 a.m. Aug. 3, when Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Clancy Gines was parked in the median of Interstate 80 outside Green River, Wyoming, monitoring eastbound traffic. He spotted a grey SUV traveling toward him going about 80 mph in the 75 mph zone, an estimate his radar soon confirmed, according to an evidentiary affidavit filed in the case.
Gines followed the vehicle and flicked on his emergency lights to pull it over. He noticed the vehicle had a cracked windshield and a piece of paper taped onto the windshield as well, the affidavit says.
As he approached from the driver’s side, Gines noticed three males on the inside of the vehicle who apparently could not speak English. The trooper also smelled a distinct odor of raw marijuana, says the document.
Gines asked the men for their identification, and “they were unable to provide him with any form of documentation,” the trooper wrote in the affidavit.
He asked them to come back to his patrol vehicle. He placed the SUV’s driver in his own front seat, and the other males remained in the barrow ditch while he waited for another officer to arrive on scene, reportedly.
The man who’d been sitting in the SUV’s front passenger seat, later identified as Raul Martin Lopez, ran off on foot through the sagebrush, says the affidavit. The document doesn’t say who apprehended him or how, but it says he was apprehended shortly afterward, then put into a trooper’s vehicle.
At least one more trooper arrived on scene, and the agents conducted a probable cause search of the vehicle. They found several large duffel bags inside it, which in turn contained large, vacuum-sealed packages of a green leafy substance, the affidavit alleges.
Gines’ account cites his experience, and a later presumptive positive test result, as indicators that this was marijuana.
After a later “thorough” search, all the marijuana weighed in at 170.3 pounds with its vacuum-sealed packaging, the affidavit says.
Getting A Tow
The SUV was towed to the Wyoming Highway Patrol district office in Rock Springs, Wyoming.
Troopers brought the men to the district office, where WHP Trooper Tapia Vera, who is fluent in Spanish, agreed to translate for them.
Two of the men agreed to speak with investigators. They said they were from Guatemala but had been living in California.
The driver was identified as Edgar Jimenez Hernandez of Oakland, California. The front-seat passenger was identified as Rual Martin Lopez of San Pablo, California, and the backseat passenger was identified as Eduardo Martin Sales, says the document.
Vera interviewed Hernandez, who also gave Vera access to his cellphone, the affidavit says.
Vera scrolled through Hernandez’s photos and found several photographs of large quantities of raw marijuana being processed July 13. He found several pictures of all three men traveling through Kansas and around California, reportedly.
“Hernandez did not want to provide the information on where they were transporting marijuana,” the document says, adding that he said Lopez and Sales were paying him $500 to drive the vehicle and the drug to that unknown destination.
Feds Say Hey-Now
An immigration officer acting under the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security filed a notice Aug. 4, commanding authorities to “take into custody and remove from the United States” Raul Martin Lopez.
Neither Lopez’s public defense attorney Robert Spence nor Sweetwater County Attorney Dan Erramouspe could be reached by publication time to speak to Lopez’s status.
The Department of Homeland Security filed a different notice in Hernandez’s case, asking authorities for “biometric confirmation of the alien’s identity” and a search of any federal records of his immigration status.
The department also requested any statements Hernandez may have made indicating his immigration status, and whether he is removable under U.S. immigration law.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
