Missouri – A Mexican citizen confessed in federal court to being part of a big methamphetamine trafficking organization that was discovered after a traffic stop in Kansas City, Missouri. The plea is a big step forward in an investigation by several agencies that uncovered a drug operation across state lines and an unlawful reentry to the U.S. after being deported.
Apolinar Gocovachi Pacheco, 25, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Roseann A. Ketchmark. He admitted to having more than 56 pounds of methamphetamine with the purpose to sell it and to coming back to the country illegally after being sent back in August 2024.
According to the Department of Justice, On September 3, 2024, a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer pulled over a gray 2011 Acura MDX on Interstate 29 near the N.W. 112th Street exit. There were four people in the car: an adult man behind the wheel who didn’t have a valid driver’s license, a teenage girl in the front passenger seat, and Pacheco and another adult man in the back. The trooper found a huge quantity of methamphetamine in a duffle bag in the third-row sitting area during the search. There was also a bag with around a pound of the narcotic on the floor where the kid had been seated, and a loaded gun was located in the driver’s door.
As the trooper continued the search, two of the adult males attempted to escape on foot. A brief manhunt followed, ending with both suspects taken into custody.
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Pacheco told investigators that he had just been in the U.S. for two weeks when they interviewed him. He had paid $6,000 to cross the border in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. He said he had been asked to go from Kansas City, Kansas, to Omaha to get drugs and then help bring them back to Kansas City. Pacheco said that one of the men in the Acura with him promised to pay him a lot of money for his assistance.
Later, immigration officials said that Pacheco had been caught near Nogales, Arizona, on August 22, 2024, and sent back to Mexico the same day. Under federal law, his return to the United States was an illegal reentry.
Pacheco now faces a mandatory minimum of five years and a potential maximum of 40 years in federal prison, with the final sentence to be determined by the court after a presentence investigation. Brad K. Kavanaugh, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, is in charge of the case. The FBI, DEA, Jackson County Drug Task Force, Kansas City Police Department, and Missouri State Highway Patrol are all working on it.
