Mexican National Indicted for Meth Trafficking

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Mexican national riding on a bus passing through Kansas City, Mo., was indicted by a federal grand jury today after law enforcement officers found 23 pounds of methamphetamine in his carry-on bags.

Luis Carlos Ballesteros-Duarte, 42, a citizen of Mexico, was charged with one count of possessing methamphetamine to distribute in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo. Today’s indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint filed against Ballesteros-Duarte on Nov. 13, 2017.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, a police department canine working at a local bus terminal gave a positive alert for the presence of narcotic odor on two duffel bags located in the passenger compartment of a bus traveling from Denver, Colo., to St. Louis, Mo. Officers questioned Ballesteros-Duarte, whom they observed was acting nervously, and learned that the duffel bags belonged to him.

Officers searched the duffel bags and found a total of 23 large bundles of methamphetamine wrapped in clear cellophane, the affidavit says, with a total weight of approximately 23 pounds.
 
Larson cautioned that the charge contained in this indictment is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph M. Marquez. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.