CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A 29-year-old man from Mexico will spend five years in federal prison after he was caught with cocaine hidden inside a car battery.
Azael Sotelo-Espinoza pleaded guilty in October and was sentenced this week by a federal judge. Since he's not a U.S. citizen, he'll likely be sent back to Mexico after he gets out of prison. The judge also said he can't come back to the United States without special permission.
The whole thing started last August when police pulled over Sotelo-Espinoza's white pickup truck because one of his lights wasn't working properly.
When officers started asking him questions, they noticed he was acting really nervous. He was sweating, breathing hard, and his hands were shaking. He also kept changing his story about where he was going and where he'd been.
Police noticed something weird about the truck's engine - there was an extra battery that looked like someone had messed with it. When they X-rayed the battery, they found out it was fake and didn't have the normal parts inside.
A drug-sniffing dog also smelled something suspicious.
When officers opened up the fake battery, they found two packages wrapped in duct tape. The packages weighed about 5 pounds and contained cocaine.
Police also found tools in the back seat that could be used to take apart the battery. They discovered that Sotelo-Espinoza had deleted messages from his phone before they stopped him. His truck had been making lots of trips between South Texas and Houston, going back and forth on the same day.
Sotelo-Espinoza is staying in jail until he gets moved to a federal prison.
The Drug Enforcement Administration worked with local police in Kingsville to investigate the case.
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