SW Arizona News

A Mexican national convicted in 2017 of manufacturing, distributing, and selling methamphetamine has been arrested. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Yuma Sector Chief Patrol Agent Sean L. McGoffin made the announcement in a July 10 post on X.

In his post on X, McGoffin wrote: "Drug offender arrested! #YumaStation agents arrested Ismael Rodriguez Loreto, a 40-year-old Mexican national convicted of manufacture, distribution, and sale of meth in 2017 in San Francisco and sentenced to 42 months in prison. He now faces additional time behind bars."

According to a May 2017 press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, an extensive drug distribution network was uncovered after a federal grand jury indicted 23 individuals for conspiring to engage in drug trafficking. The May 17, 2017 news release states that the seventeen-count indictment charges that between March 22, 2016, and April 27, 2017, nineteen defendants engaged in a conspiracy to distribute at least 500 grams of methamphetamine and more than five kilograms of cocaine and heroin. Additionally, the indictment accuses all but one defendant of possession with intent to distribute drugs.

Screenshot of Sean McGoffin's July 10 Post on X | X

Ismael Rodriguez Loreto, then a Fresno resident aged 33, was charged with Conspiracy to Possess With Intent to Distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, and heroin; Possession With Intent to Distribute Cocaine; and Possession With Intent to Distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. The news release notes that these charges are updates to previous charges he had been facing.

The Yuma sector covers 181,670 square miles of desert terrain in Arizona and California. This includes 126 miles of the U.S. border from the Imperial Sand Dunes to the Yuma-Pima County Line. Established in December 1954, it now includes three stations located in Yuma and Wellton, Arizona, and Blythe, California.

U.S. Border Patrol is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security responsible for safeguarding the nation's borders and preventing illegal entry of people and contraband. Established in 1924, it operates at 328 ports of entry and protects 7,000 miles of land borders and 95,000 miles of maritime borders.