Trucker admits hauling 14 tons of marijuana on Interstate 15

10:49 PM PST on Wednesday, January 20, 2010

SARAH BURGE

The Press-Enterprise

An Ontario man arrested in what Riverside County sheriff's officials described as the largest marijuana seizure in county history pleaded guilty this week to transporting about 14 tons of marijuana with the intent to distribute it, federal court records show.

Angel Guillen Raya, 51, is scheduled for sentencing April 12.

His attorney, Jan Edward Ronis, said Guillen Raya has been a truck driver all his life and is married with stepchildren.

He was pulled over Aug. 26 on Interstate 15 south of Temecula driving a big rig stuffed with bundles of marijuana. According to the plea deal with the U.S. attorney's office, Guillen Raya had agreed to haul 28,000 pounds of marijuana from San Diego County to San Bernardino County in exchange for $10,000.

It wasn't the first time. Guillen Raya admitted he had been driving similar loads of marijuana for at least three months before his arrest, but the court documents do not specify how many trips he made.

According to an affidavit filed with the court, a Riverside County sheriff's deputy was driving north on Interstate 15 in a marked police vehicle about 9:30 a.m. when he saw a semitrailer tailgating another truck. As the deputy pulled alongside the semitrailer, the driver, later identified as Guillen Raya, changed lanes and nearly crashed into the deputy's vehicle, court records show.

The deputy pulled Guillen Raya over for making an unsafe lane change. A few minutes later, another deputy arrived with a drug-sniffing dog that "alerted" deputies to the presence of drugs in the truck, court records show.

Inside the trailer, deputies found pallets of marijuana stacked to the ceiling. Guillen Raya said it was the second delivery he had made that week to Ontario, court records show.

Sheriff's officials have said the deputy had no advance information about the truck and that the stop was purely the result of the deputy witnessing the unsafe lane change.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said no else has been charged in connection with the case but there is an ongoing investigation into the source of the marijuana.