$150,000, cocaine, and a pair of shoes in a hidden compartment lead to conviction on MS Coast

A federal jury in Gulfport convicted a Texas man on Thursday who police found with thousands of dollars hidden in a secret compartment of his car in what investigators determined was payment for a cocaine network operating between Mexico, Texas and Moss Point.

Jose Humberto Gandara, 52, of Edinburg, Texas was convicted of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute a substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.

The conviction came after law enforcement stopped Gandara multiple times in different states.

In 2016, officers stopped Gandara while he drove a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta in Gulfport. The Jetta had nearly $150,000 stashed in a concealed compartment under the center console, the release said.

Gandara denied any knowledge of the money, the attorney’s office said.

Then investigators showed him a pair of shoes. They had found the shoes in the compartment, according to the release, and sliced into them to see if they held a tracker. Gandara asked why they cut the shoes. Officers confronted him with the fact they found the shoes in the secret compartment, and Gandara admitted he was moving the money for a percentage of it, the release said.

He also denied any involvement with narcotics, but the release said photos on his phone “appeared to depict bricks of cocaine.”

In January 2015, in a different Volkswagen Jetta that belonged to Gandara was stopped at the border between Texas and Mexico. An employee of Gandara’s was driving, the release said.

Border Patrol agents found 12 kilograms of cocaine in a hidden compartment — the same style compartment found in the Jetta Gandara drove in Gulfport.

By September of 2015, officers stopped Gandara in Alabama and found almost $360,000 divided into bundles wrapped in green plastic and stuffed into the front seats of the car he was driving, the release said.

He denied knowledge of the money, the release said, but it matched another bundle of money Gandara claimed from his duffle bag.

Investigators later determined the $150,000 seized in Gulfport was payment for cocaine headed to Moss Point, according to the release.

Testimony and trial evidence showed Gandara had worked for a supplier in Texas, who imported cocaine from Mexico and sent it to the Mississippi Coast city, the release said.

Gandara’s sentencing is April 17. He faces a maximum sentence of twenty years.

The Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Border Patrol, Gulfport Police Department, Louisiana State Police and Alabama’s 17th Judicial Task Force Team investigated Gandara’s case.

Assistant U.S. attorneys Jonathan Buckner and Hunter McCreight prosecuted.

This story was originally published January 12, 2024 at 2:35 PM.