NEWS RELEASE SUMMARY - Feb. 14, 2019
SAN DIEGO - Jesus Armando Tiznado-Duran, a Mexican citizen, pleaded guilty today in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew G. Schopler to Count 1 of an Information charging him with knowingly and intentionally conspiring with other persons to import approximately 5705.60 kilograms (12,552.32 pounds) of marijuana.
Through his plea agreement, Tiznado-Duran, a Tijuana, Mexico resident and professional truck driver, admitted that on November 6, 2018 he was dispatched by his employer with an empty trailer to a plastics company in Tijuana to pick up a shipment slated for delivery in the United States. Tiznado-Duran deviated from the route he was supposed to take and stopped at a predetermined location in Mexico, where his trailer was loaded with more than 6 tons of marijuana and approximately 15.54 kilograms (34.19) of heroin. Tiznado-Duran then delivered the trailer to another truck driver who was scheduled to drive the shipment of plastics from Tijuana, Mexico into the United States. When that truck driver drove the trailer into the United States at the Otay Mesa, California Port of Entry and presented an invoice listing the contents of the trailer as “plastic fittings," Customs and Border Protection officials inspected the trailer and discovered it contained marijuana and heroin.
The federal narcotics charge to which Tiznado-Duran has pleaded guilty carries a mandatory minimum ten year sentence and a maximum life. Tiznado-Duran is scheduled to be sentenced on May 6, 2019 before U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz in San Diego.
DEFENDANT Case Number 18cr5231-BTM
Jesus Armando Tiznado-Duran Age: 28 Tijuana, MX
SUMMARY OF CHARGES
Conspiracy to Import a Controlled Substance - Title 21, U.S.C., Sections 952, 960, and 963
Maximum penalty: life imprisonment, and a mandatory minimum 10 years; $10,000,000 fine, and at least five years’ supervised release up to life.
AGENCY
Homeland Security Investigations
Customs and Border Protection
*The charges and allegations contained in an indictment or complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
