Federal agents coordinated the purchase of 10 pounds of methamphetamine at a Lorton hotel with the help of a jailhouse informant whose illegal immigrant cellmate claimed to be part of a drug trafficking organization in Mexico, court records said.
On Thursday, agents arrested an Alabama woman and her accused co-conspirator at a Lorton Comfort Inn after the two attempted to sell to authorities 10 packets of meth weighing one pound apiece, according to documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court. Maria Benita
Santa-Maria and Nihad Jasarevic have been charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
Santa-Maria’s attorney declined to comment Friday. Jasarevic’s did not return calls seeking comment.
In May, a confidential source informed an undercover Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent that his cellmate was involved in trafficking large amounts of cocaine into the United States from Mexico, ATF agent Jeremy Witkowski wrote in a sworn statement. The informant put the undercover agent in touch with his cellmate, Salvador Ayala, and the two arranged the meeting with Santa-Maria and Jasarevic.
Ayala is serving a nearly two-year sentence for re-entering the United States after having been previously deported, court records show. The Honduran native was arrested in Texas in November 2002 after police found nearly a pound of meth in his car. Ayala was sentenced to 10 years in prison but was released and deported back to Honduras in April 2005. Records show he returned to the United States in September 2006.
Between May 28 and Thursday, the undercover agent repeatedly spoke with Ayala and arranged for a cocaine delivery in Woodbridge, Witkowski wrote.
On Wednesday, the undercover agent spoke with Santa-Maria, the statement said. The two first met in a Woodbridge parking lot, but Santa-Maria said she couldn’t give the drugs to the agent right away. The “couches,” she reportedly told the agent, were concealed inside her car in a compartment behind the tires.
Santa-Maria, followed by law enforcement, drove to the Comfort Inn where Jasarevic later admitted to moving the drugs from the hidden compartment to the back seat, Witkowski wrote.
When the agent arrived, Jasarevic directed the agent to the back seat and the drugs were discovered, Witkowski wrote. But they weren’t the cocaine that had been discussed. Instead, the packages tested positive for meth.
