Brownsville man sentenced after smuggling 53lbs of meth

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A Brownsville man was sentenced for importing meth, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

Juan Adame II, 27, pleaded guilty on March 11, 2022, according to a news release from the United States Attorney's Office. On Friday, Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane ordered Adame to serve 4.75 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

On April 8, 2021, Adame was attempting to cross at the Progresso Port of Entry, where he claimed he had no illegal drugs in his vehicle.

He was then transferred to a secondary inspection, where a K-9 alerted authorities to an odor of narcotics. According to the release, they found 25 bricks of meth hidden in compartments within the vehicle's wheel wells.

Authorities say the bricks of meth weighed approximately 53 pounds and had a street value of $60,000.

"At the time of his plea, Adame admitted he knew he was smuggling narcotics and had done so on multiple occasions," said Alamdar S. Hamdani, U.S. Attorney.

"At the hearing, the court heard additional evidence Adame had an integral role in smuggling illegal narcotics into the United States," Hamdani said.

Adame remains in custody where he is pending his transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.