Georgia - Alleged motorcycle gang member jailed in marijuana smuggling plot

OFF THE WIRE
An alleged motorcycle gang member is behind bars after being implicated in a plot to move more than 2,500 pounds of marijuana from Olmito to Atlanta, Georgia.

U.S. Immigration & Custom Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security agents arrested 36-year-old Gabriel Olivarez on federal drug charges on Tuesday.

Court records released Wednesday show that Olivarez allegedly worked as a drug trafficking "broker" and hired an undercover ICE agent posing as a truck driver in May.

Authorities secretly escorted the Atlanta-bound 18 wheeler to a hotel in Corpus Christi where authorities recovered 191 bundles with 2,551 pounds of marijuana.

A criminal complaint filed in the case shows that Olivarez is a member of the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang and has a previous marijuana trafficking conviction in North Carolina back in 2000.

Members from the local Rio Grande Valley Chapter of the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang told Action 4 News that Olivarez is not a member of their organization.

The criminal complaint shows Olivarez was also linked to a money laundering incident in Santa Rosa where authorities found more than $2.1 million dollars in cash back in October 2005.

Olivarez's cousin also implicated him in another incident in December 2010 where authorities seized 643 pounds of marijuana.

Harlingen police arrested Olivarez during a January 2011 traffic where an officer allegedly found the drug Xanax in his car.

Authorities had kept him under surveillance since that time and even filed for a search warrant to search his home near the intersection of North Rose Street and Spring Meadow Lane.

Olivarez appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio in Brownsville on Wednesday morning.

Public records show that Olivarez was out on bond for the Xanax incident at the time ICE agents arrested him.

Olivarez registered his driver’s license to North 5th Street in Santa Rosa but investigators report he now lives in Harlingen.

Judge Recio denied bond for Olivarez until a Friday morning hearing.

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