Atlanta-Based Trafficker Convicted in $157 Million Meth Operation Smuggled Through Laredo

A federal jury in Laredo convicted a Mexican national of running methamphetamine and cocaine from Mexico into the United States as part of an organization that moved roughly 10,460 kilograms of meth worth an estimated $157 million, much of it hidden inside shipments of produce, charcoal, and frozen fruit puree. The jury deliberated about six hours on July 27 before finding Wblester Villanueva Echeverria, 30, guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute the drugs, capping a five-day trial. Echeverria, who had been living in Atlanta, and his co-conspirators imported the drugs through Laredo from June 2019 through at least August 2023 and distributed them in the Atlanta area and along the East Coast. The concealment methods ran through legitimate cargo. Evidence tied Echeverria to about a dozen shipments in which smugglers packed the narcotics into produce, charcoal, and strawberry puree. The investigation opened in November 2021, when officers pulled 1,184 kilograms of meth and 51.4 kilograms of cocaine out of a cauliflower shipment that came through the World Trade Bridge in Laredo. Investigators then traced other loads to the group, including nearly 800 kilograms of meth built into a strawberry-puree shipment and more than 460 kilograms hidden in a load of charcoal, all of it moving through Laredo. Prosecutors laid out an organization that linked Mexican suppliers, a Dallas cell, and Echeverria's Georgia-based group. They also showed the tradecraft: Echeverria ran a Facebook account under the fake name Alexis Maldonado to talk with co-conspirators, cycled through a string of cell phone numbers, and routinely deleted his messages while telling others to do the same. Echeverria faces up to life in prison and a possible $10 million fine. U.S. District Judge John A. Kazen will set a sentencing date later, and Echeverria remains in custody until then.