DEL RIO, Texas — A Killeen man will spend the next 22 years behind bars after being arrested in a town near the Texas-Mexico border in 2020.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of Texas, court documents say Joshua Ruben Olivencia, 34, was arrested at a hotel in Del Rio on Aug. 1, 2020 after an investigation by authorities connected him and others to a "conspiracy to import methamphetamine" from across the border in Mexico and distribute it in the U.S.
The day before Olivencia was arrested, he and another individual, David Ray Coplin, were set to travel to Del Rio to meet Bibiana Ira Ortiz and Jimmie Troy Palmer III about the meth they were supposed to have smuggled across the border.
One of the co-defendants, Bibiana Ira Ortiz, was caught by Customs and Border Protection with 16 packages of meth that were tucked away inside the door panels of a car that she was driving during a port of entry inspection. According to the release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Palmer was given $18,500 by Olivencia to purchase meth from Mexico. The total weight of the meth that was seized came out to 7.86 kilograms, or just over 17 pounds.
Officials say Olivencia had distributed meth across multiple cities in Bell County and the Austin area and even had distributors working for him to get the illegal substances out to Killeen, Temple, Belton, and the aforementioned Austin.
Ortiz, Palmer, and Coplin all pled guilty to a variety of charges related to the arrests on June 7, 2021, July 21, 2021, and March 8, 2021 respectively. Ortiz and Palmer have been sentenced to roughly 12.5 years and 25 years in prison respectively, while Coplin is set to receive his prison sentence on Oct. 31.
Click here to read the full release on justice.gov.