Mexican Citizen Sentenced for Attempting to Deliver Methamphetamine Contained in Pizza Box

United States Attorney Joe Kelly announced that on December 9, 2019, Senior United States District Judge Laurie Smith Camp sentenced Hugo Lopez-Ortiz, of Mexico, to an 87-month term of imprisonment, to be served in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.  There is no parole in the federal system.

On August 25, 2018, DEA investigators became aware that Lopez-Ortiz would be delivering methamphetamine to a customer on behalf of a Mexican supplier at a Kicks gas station near Eppley Airfield.  On August 26, 2018, Omaha Police Department officers approached Lopez-Ortiz as he stood in the parking lot of the gas station holding a pizza box.  Lopez-Ortiz consented to a search of his person and of the items he was holding.  Officers found close to 3½ pounds of methamphetamine within the pizza box and Lopez-Ortiz was arrested.

Investigators subsequently searched Lopez-Ortiz’s nearby hotel room and recovered more than $13,000.00 from under the bed, which was later forfeited.  At sentencing, Lopez-Ortiz claimed that at the time of the offense, he was gainfully employed by the Ford Motor Company at a manufacturing facility in Hermosillo, Mexico.  Travel records showed that Lopez-Ortiz had recently traveled to Omaha from Mexico.

Lopez-Ortiz will be removed from the United States by immigration authorities after completing his term of imprisonment.

The case was primarily investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration – Omaha Field Division, the Omaha Police Department, and the Southwest Iowa Narcotics Task Force.