A California man transported 132 pounds of meth to Tampa International Airport.
Jacob Paul Arjona, 32, of Bakersfield, California, was sentenced to 24 years and 6 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute and possessing with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
According to court documents, Arjona arranged for Hernan Cruz-Moreno and Agustin Ortiz-Sanchez to transport more than 120 pounds of methamphetamine to Tampa in their luggage on a flight from Los Angeles, California to Tampa International Airport (TIA) on May 3, 2023, while Arjona traveled to Florida separately to oversee the distribution of the methamphetamine.
After Cruz-Moreno and Ortiz-Sanchez were detained and arrested at TIA, and their luggage was seized, special agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) checked the packaging of the recovered methamphetamine and found a positive match on fingerprint testing for Arjona.
According to airline data, Arjona traveled to Tampa and then flew out of Orlando on May 3, 2023.
Cruz-Moreno earlier pled guilty to trafficking charges and received a 7-year, 3-month prison sentence in April 2024. Ortiz-Sanchez vanished after being freed on bond and is still wanted by authorities.
According to airline records, Arjona was allegedly involved in similar marijuana and methamphetamine businesses in other jurisdictions. Furthermore, the Drug Enforcement Administration was able to connect Arjona to an unrelated October 2023 drug and kidnapping crime in Holiday, Florida, thanks to airline and luggage information acquired by HSI investigators during the investigation. Arjona pleaded guilty to that charge in December 2024.
“The coordination and cooperation by our law enforcement partners were effective in disrupting the trafficking of methamphetamine from coast to coast,” according to U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe. “We will continue to work together to prevent the flow of dangerous drugs into our communities across the Middle District of Florida.”
“Illicit narcotics like methamphetamine pose a grave threat that destroys lives, tears apart families, and undermines the safety and well-being of neighborhoods across the country,” said Homeland Security Investigations Tampa acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge Michael Calvo. HSI, together with our colleagues at the Tampa International Airport Police Department, is committed to preventing these criminals from bringing the terrible consequences of illegal drugs into our communities.”
This term will run simultaneously with Arjona’s sentence in a different federal methamphetamine trafficking and kidnapping case, for which he was sentenced to 17 years and 7 months in August 2025. Arjona has been in detention since February 25, 2025 and pleaded guilty on November 19, 2025. United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Homeland Security Investigations investigated this crime, with assistance from the Tampa International Airport Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney E. Jackson Boggs, Jr.
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