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A Cuban-American truck driver from South Florida who allegedly stole a trailer containing $3 million worth of cigarettes from Love’s Truck Stop in Jefferson County has been indicted by a federal grand jury for theft.
Abisael Fuentes, 28, will remain incarcerated until his case tracks through the court system, U.S. Magistrate Dennis H. Inman ruled earlier. Earlier, federal officials identified the defendant as Abisari Fuentes.
Inman indicated Fuentes could “soon” be indicted by a federal grand jury in Texas on a marijuana-trafficking charge. The tractor-trailer he drove from Mexico into the United States contained almost a ton of marijuana.
Marijuana shipments of this size in northern Mexico are rare without direct or indirect contact with Mexican drug cartels.
The Zetas, a ruthless crew led mostly by former Mexican military and police commanders, are the predominant shot-callers in Nuevo Laredo, where Fuentes reportedly crossed the border.
Court documents in the Jefferson County case suggest Fuentes, who lives in Hialeah, Fla., could be part of a U.S.-based criminal organization.
The truck he was driving when he was caught with the 550,000 packs of cigarettes is registered to another Hialeah man named Abimael Fuente. In 2009, a man named Abimael Fuente, a Hialeah resident, was arrested after stealing $8.8 million worth of prescription drugs from a Georgia truck stop.
Fuente was attempting to off-load the drugs in New Jersey when he was taken into custody.
-From Staff Reports
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