Two individuals were apprehended after federal agents discovered a significant quantity of illegal drugs hidden within a semi truck filled with produce at a Georgia warehouse. According to officials, on June 30, 2025, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) received information indicating that a tractor trailer parked at a warehouse in Gainesville, Georgia, might be transporting a large drug shipment. Agents observed a sedan parked next to the semi truck, with 37-year-old Andres Jasso, Jr. behind the wheel and 59-year-old Rufino Pineda-Perez in the passenger seat. Upon inspecting the tractor trailer, agents found 20 pallets of boxes filled with cucumbers. Officials reported that the DEA found thousands of separately packaged methamphetamine items inside the boxes. Jasso, Jr. and Pineda-Perez were reportedly assigned to unload the shipment from the tractor-trailer and to sort out the drugs from the cucumbers. Following the arrest of Jasso, Jr. and Pineda-Perez by DEA agents, it was revealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that over 700 pounds of methamphetamine had been seized. On July 1, both individuals were charged with possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, as stated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. Pineda-Perez also faces charges for unlawful reentry as a deported individual. He is reportedly a citizen and national of Mexico who lacks legal status in the United States. In 2001, Pineda-Perez was expelled from the United States after being convicted of a felony in Arizona for the transportation of marijuana. Subsequently, he unlawfully re-entered the United States and was apprehended by federal agents in March 2014, while he was carrying almost one kilogram of cocaine in the Atlanta region. In August 2015, a federal judge imposed a sentence of six and a half years in prison. “After finishing his prison term, Pineda-Perez was deported again,” officials reported. The DEA is currently investigating the case with help from the Georgia State Patrol, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security, specifically the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Due to the hard work of our federal and state law enforcement partners, a significant quantity of carefully hidden methamphetamine was discovered, seized, and will not reach the streets,” stated U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg.
