- NEWS RELEASE -

Date: July 24, 2006

Subject: $220,000 in marijuana leads to trial conviction

A 43-year-old El Paso, Texas man was found guilty of trafficking 220 pounds of marijuana after a Platte County trial July 24. Prior to trial, Luis Rodriguez had pled not guilty to trafficking marijuana through the Kansas City International Airport.

Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said, “Eighty-five thousand people could have gotten high on the amount of marijuana the defendant tried to deliver. That would be enough marijuana to make a joint for every man, woman, and child in Platte County.”

At trial, Zahnd’s office proved Rodriguez traveled 18 hours by bus from El Paso to Kansas City on February 12 and 13, 2005. Then, following instructions from his superiors, Rodriguez drove a Chevrolet Blazer which had been left outside his hotel to KCI on February 15.

Rodriguez was to pick up the boxes of marijuana and deliver them to a North Kansas City gas station. Rodriguez had been instructed to leave the vehicle at the gas station for the next courier to take over.

Rodriguez argued at trial that he did not know he was transporting marijuana. However, an officer with a Drug Enforcement Administration task force testified that the marijuana had a street value of approximately $220,000. Zahnd’s office argued that the amount of the marijuana and the fact that the drug lord only trusted Rodriguez—who was from El Paso—rather than a local drug courier, meant Rodriguez must have known what he was delivering.

Rodriguez has been convicted of six drug crimes over the past 23 years and was on parole when he committed this offense. Zahnd’s office charged Rodriguez as a prior drug offender, meaning he will never be eligible for parole.

Rodriguez is scheduled to be sentenced September 7. He faces 10 to 30 years, or life, in prison.

Zahnd said, “This defendant was one link in a drug distribution chain. Clearly, prison has not deterred him, as he has repeatedly been caught and punished for doing the same thing. Since he has not learned from his previous time behind bars, we hope to put him away until he is too old and feeble to ever run drugs again.”

The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration Kansas City Interdiction Task Force. It was tried by Assistant Prosecutor Joe Vanover.