{"id":343359,"date":"2026-06-19T21:19:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/343359\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T21:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:19:30","slug":"texas-drug-courier-sentenced-to-24-years-for-fentanyl-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/343359\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Drug Courier Sentenced to 24 Years for Fentanyl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781903970_682_hlhnwbawsaawn5a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"764\" height=\"432\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-v-653d32e2=\"\"\/> article <\/p>\n<p data-v-653d32e2=\"\">HSI Del Rio announced that Anahi Sanchez was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison for trafficking fentanyl through the Del Rio POE. <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">DEL RIO, Texas &#8211; A Big Lake woman has been sentenced to 24 years in federal prison for her role as a drug mule for a transnational criminal organization.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Anahi Sanchez, 28, was sentenced in a Del Rio federal court to 288 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The sentence stems from an April 4, 2022, incident in which Sanchez attempted to enter the United States from Mexico through the Del Rio Port of Entry. Driving a Chevrolet Camaro with her young son inside, Sanchez told U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers that they were returning home after visiting family in Mexico.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">A secondary inspection of the vehicle revealed anomalies near the rear wheel wells, and a canine unit alerted officers to the presence of narcotics. A physical search uncovered 30 packages containing a total of 18 kilograms (nearly 40 pounds) of fentanyl hidden behind a trap door. Sanchez was arrested at the scene.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Investigators later determined that Sanchez was a regular courier for a smuggling ring, routinely crossing the international border in various vehicles loaded with narcotics destined for the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. In total, authorities held Sanchez accountable for the distribution of approximately 130 kilograms (286 pounds) of fentanyl.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Sanchez was indicted in May 2022 on five federal counts, including drug trafficking, importation, and money laundering. She pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in December 2022.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative,&#8221; U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Justin R. Simmons said in a statement, noting the interagency effort aimed at dismantling transnational criminal organizations and cartels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information in this article is from the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office, Western District of Texas and HSI San Antonio.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/us\/tx\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/immigration\/us-border-security\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Border Security<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article HSI Del Rio announced that Anahi Sanchez was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison for trafficking&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,1046,1724,223,216,393,21396],"class_list":["post-343359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-immigration","tag-news","tag-tx","tag-us","tag-us-border-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}