FBI: El Paso Pot Smugglers Made Drug Mules Out Of Unsuspecting Border Crossers

The affidavit almost reads like a movie script: drugs, deception, double-cross. ABC-7 obtained court documents detailing a pot smuggling operation that allegedly made drug mules out of unsuspecting border crossers.

Ana Isela Martinez Amaya, a 4th grade teacher at La Fe prep school in El Paso, was especially interested in the contents of the affadavit. Amaya is locked up in Ciudad Juarez’s Cereso prison, accused by Mexican officials of trying to smuggle about 110 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. through the Stanton Street bridge in May. The pot was allegedly found in two suitcases placed in the trunk of Amaya’s car. Amaya claimed the bags were planted in her car.

“Now that they caught the people who put the drugs in my car, I feel very positive,” said Amaya. Amaya’s optimism is due to the court documents, which detail an FBI investigation that could clear her name.

The affidavit implicates two men: Jesus “Jesse” Chavez and Carlos Gomez. The affidavit states Gomez and Chavez helped carry out a pot smuggling operation that depended on unsuspecting border crossers.

According to the documents, Gomez and Chavez allegedly hired teens in Ciudad Juarez to target frequent travelers on the Stanton Street express lane, usually students and professionals with predictable schedules.

The hired hands would secretly jot down the targeted car’s VIN number and allegedly passed it on to Chavez and Gomez. Then Chavez and Gomez used a locksmith to allegedly make two copies of the target car’s key.

The affidavit states one of the key copies went to unidentified accomplices in Juarez. At nightfall, those accomplices would allegedly follow the unsuspecting car owner home to open the owner’s car trunk with the copied key, thus enabling the Juarez accomplices to allegedly plant duffel bags full of drugs in the car’s trunk.

The next day, the innocent car owner would cross into El Paso and go to work or school while Gomez and/or Chavez allegedly retrieved the bags of pot with the second car key copy they’d made.

FBI agents worked with an informer to obtain evidence for the affidavit. The informer wore a recording device.

The affidavit states the informer met with Gomez early last month at an El Paso restaurant to discuss Amaya’s case. The informer allegedly asked Gomez, “Why did you pick (Amaya)? Was she really hot or what?”

Gomez allegedly replied, “No, it’s that look…we have seen that girl for about a year because she’s like a clock, boss. At 5:00 she was there. Boom, boom, boom. Always.”

FBI agents arrested Chavez last Thursday. Carlos Gomez is still on the run. If you know anything about Gomez’s whereabouts, call police.

As for Amaya, she has a hearing before a Mexican judge on Friday.