900 lb. meth bust, 2 convictions, 0 media
It was a big deal when it happened last July, the second 900-pound meth bust of the summer of 2025. It made national news.
The U.S. Attorney for Minnesota issued a press release, under the headline,
Two Men Indicted with Conspiracy to Distribute 900 Pounds of Methamphetamine, One Charged with Illegal Reentry.
Details from the press release,
Joel Casas-Santiago, 46, and Guillermo Mercado-Chaparro, 44, are both charged with one count of Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine. Mercado-Chaparro is additionally charged with Illegal Reentry by a Removed Alien.
Fast forward to 2026. Yesterday, at the federal courthouse in downtown St. Paul, Mercado entered a guilty plea on the meth charge. The illegal immigration charge will likely be dropped at his sentencing.
According to the plea agreement on file, Mercado, a Mexican citizen and an illegal alien, faces a prison term somewhere in the very wide range of 5 to 17 years, with deportation to follow thereafter. The mandatory minimum is 10 years.
Court records show that Mercado has been deported on two previous occasions.
His accomplice, Casas-Santiago, is scheduled to enter a guilty plea on March 24.
900 pounds of meth sounds like a lot, to me. Securing two felony convictions in a high-profile drug case sounds like it should be considered a real triumph for the U.S. Attorney’s office, said to be crippled by departures and defections in recent months.
But I searched both Bing and Google and could not find a single media story about these convictions.
Perhaps the illegal immigration angle muddies the waters for media outlets. Dealing meth in 900-pound units sounds like “worst of the worst” territory.
To quote the Danny DeVito character in the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential,
Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush
[Updated: On Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Attorney’s office put out a press release on the guilty plea, which prompted some local media coverage. A sampling,
- FOX-9 TV: Man caught with nearly 900 pounds of meth pleads guilty
- KIMT-3: Mexican national pleads guilty after being caught with 900 pounds of meth
- St. Paul Pioneer Press: Man pleads guilty in large meth case, agrees to be deported after he serves sentence
- WCCO-4 TV: Man pleads guilty to role in one of the largest drug busts in Minnesota history