United States v. Joe Mendoza

[Published]

Joe Louis Mendoza began a five-year term of supervised release in December 2012 after serving a 200-month prison sentence for possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute. In November 2013, Texas State Trooper Max Honesto stopped Mendoza for a routine traffic violation while he was driving a rental car from California to his home in Arkansas. The stop led to a probable cause search of the car and to Mendoza’s arrest when seventy vacuum-sealed bundles containing eighty-five pounds of high-grade marijuana were found in five duffle bags in the trunk of the car. Mendoza’s…