A driver offered a border agent at the Lukeville port of entry $30,000 to let him go after 48 pounds of methamphetamine was found in his pickup, court documents filed in Tucson show.
The agent declined the offer. Instead, Adan Guadalupe Portela-Perez faces federal charges of offering a bribe to a public official and drug trafficking, according to a federal grand jury indictment filed July 17 in U.S. District Court in Tucson.
Portela-Perez, a Mexican citizen, drove a black Honda Ridgeline into the port of entry on June 22 with 25 packages of meth hidden in a spare tire and 25 packages βbetween the back seat and rear wall of the vehicle,β according to a criminal complaint.
The drugs were found after a drug-sniffing canine alerted to odors coming from a compartment in the bed of the pickup. A customs officer also noted a βstrong odor of soapβ coming from the truck, according to the complaint.
A Homeland Security Investigations special agent then interviewed Portela-Perez, who reportedly said he did not know there was meth inside the vehicle.
Portela-Perez said he drove a vehicle four times in the last two months from Mexico to Phoenix. He would meet a man in Phoenix who would leave a package of money inside the vehicle to take back into Mexico.
Once in Mexico, another person picked up the package.
βAt the conclusion of the interview, Portela-Perez attempted to bribe the agent, stating that he has money and how much could he pay the agent to release him,β the special agent wrote.
Portela-Perezβs trial is scheduled for Sept. 10.
