Meth, coke distributors busted

A Chula Vista man who used to work as a baggage handler at San Diego International Airport was scheduled to surrenderMarch 6 to begin his five-year federal prison term for conspiracy to possess cocaine.

Saul Bojorquez, 27, who is also known as Saul Bojorquez Aviles, is the first person sentenced among the 11 people charged in 2014 with conspiracy and smuggling cocaine or methamphetamine in airport bathrooms to couriers.

Bojorquez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and was allowed to remain free on $140,000 bond by U.S. District Court Judge Barry Moskowitz.

His attorney wrote in court documents that Bojorquez used to work as a baggage handler and cleaned airplanes at Lindberg Field before he and the others were charged a year ago. Bojorquez withdrew from the scheme some time before he was charged, his attorney said.

On Monday, the sentencing for Paulo Mendez Perez, 37, of Chula Vista, was delayed to April 17. Mendez pleaded guilty to possession of 18 pounds of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Those drugs were seized in Hawaii on May 31, 2013.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is seeking a 97-month sentence for Mendez, who was detained without bail and remains in the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Felix Samuel Garcia, 30, of Imperial Beach, pleaded guilty to possession of meth with intent to distribute. He will be sentenced on April 10 and is free on a $150,000 property bond.

Brian Alberto Gonzalez, 31, of San Diego, was to be sentenced March 6.

Mendez, Garcia, Bojorquez and Gonzalez all worked for Delta Global Services; they loaded and unloaded baggage.

They all wore badges that granted them access to areas without search.

Court documents say Mendez and Garcia met with drug couriers in airport bathrooms and exchanged cocaine in separate men’s room stalls by handing the drugs under the bathroom stall divider.

The drug couriers would board flights with the drugs and fly to New York, Detroit, Baltimore and other areas. Mendez handed 15 pounds of cocaine to a courier who flew to Tennessee on March 12, 2013, where the drugs were seized, records say.

Six other people from San Bernardino were also charged along with a Fresno man. Their cases remain open.

During the year-long investigation, authorities seized $103,846 in cash, 17 pounds of cocaine and 18 pounds of meth.