After being released by Obama, drug smuggler is sent back to prison

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A drug smuggler who received a second chance from President Barack Obama is headed back to federal prison.

During a hearing on Tuesday afternoon, a judge sentenced Javier Enrique Mendoza, 50, of Pharr to more than three years in prison.

“I know I did wrong,” Mendoza said. “I apologize.”

It wasn’t the first time a judge had sent Mendoza to prison.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration arrested Mendoza in 1998, when he attempted to ship nearly 2,800 pounds of cocaine from the Rio Grande Valley to Chicago.

Along with Mendoza, the DEA arrested his father, Jacobo, and his uncle, Benjamin.

“They ran the operation as a family business,” Jacobo told a federal informant, according to a motion filed by federal prosecutors.

The family, however, had to find drivers who could transport drugs through Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas.

With assistance from a federal informant, the DEA set up a sting operation.

The informant — who received $2,000 in “expense money” from the government — introduced the Mendoza family to an undercover DEA agent, who claimed he was a trucker.

Jacobo provided the undercover agent with a trailer full of pineapples and “instructions on where to go in Chicago,” according to the motion.

The DEA discovered nearly 2,800 pounds of cocaine hidden in the pineapples.

After a three-day trial, a jury found Mendoza, his father and his uncle guilty on federal drug trafficking charges.

Mendoza, who had two prior convictions, was sentenced to life in prison. He was just 24 years old.

In 2016, though, Mendoza received a second chance. Obama commuted his sentence as part of a push to reform the criminal justice system.

“Because it just doesn’t make sense to require a nonviolent drug offender to serve 20 years, or in some cases, life, in prison,” according to a statement released by the Obama administration in 2016. “An excessive punishment like that doesn’t fit the crime. It’s not serving taxpayers, and it’s not making us safer.”

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons released Mendoza on May 5, 2018.

Mendoza resurfaced in 2021, when the DEA discovered that someone was shipping cocaine from the Valley to drug dealers in Montana, Tennessee and Mississippi.

Prosecutors brought charges against eight people, including Mendoza, a private investigator and two UPS drivers.

Mendoza pleaded guilty. He returned to court Tuesday for sentencing.

“I want to apologize to my family,” Mendoza said.

At the time, Mendoza was “shooting drugs,” said his attorney, Gregorio Treviño of Pharr.

“He was in a bad place,” Treviño said, but Mendoza stopped using drugs after his arrest. “He’s in a better place now.”

Mendoza had a relatively minor role in the conspiracy, Treviño said, and simply served as a lookout.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Garcia, who prosecuted the case, told a similar story.

Mendoza was an “errand boy” for the drug trafficking organization, Garcia said. Other members of the organization knew Mendoza was addicted to drugs and took advantage of his addiction.

In at least one instance, Mendoza met with a UPS driver, Garcia said, but the driver played a much bigger part in the conspiracy.

U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez sentenced Mendoza to three years and four months in prison.