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Left: Jose Francisco Herrera Munoz (GPSO). Right: Angel Gonzales Gutierrez(GPSO).
Two men from Colorado were arrested after they allegedly tried to smuggle tens of thousands of dollars worth of methamphetamine and tobacco into a federal prison in Louisiana by launching the contraband over a security wall using a “professionally manufactured” cannon.
Jose Francisco Herrera Munoz, 18, and Angel Gonzales Gutierrez, 19, were taken into custody and charged with one count each of attempting to introduce contraband into a penal institution and one count each of attempting to distribute methamphetamine, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office, the two suspects were attempting to “smuggle in $112,000 worth of tobacco and $89,500 worth of methamphetamine into the Federal Prison, by using a cannon.”
The incident took place in unincorporated Grant Parish, Louisiana, which is about 120 miles north of Lafayette. The parish is home to U.S. Penitentiary Pollock, a high-security facility for male inmates that is overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
The sheriff’s office said that the two suspects, both of whom are from Greely, Colorado, had planned to use the cannon to “launch the items over a security fence onto the grounds of the Federal Prison.” The cannon, which was propelled by compressed air, had “a range of shooting items more than 350 feet,” authorities said.
Grant Parish Sheriff Steven McCain told Louisiana Radio Network that the two suspects’ attempt at getting the drugs in the facility was not successful.
“Thanks to a very observant deputy, he was able to stop it before they were able to get the drugs into the prison,” McCain told the network. “That much meth would have just been devastating in that population.”
The sheriff also told the network that the cannon they recovered was not a homemade gadget.
“This was not something that was homemade,” McCain said. “It was bought, and it was professionally manufactured, and it’s very powerful.”
Following the arrests of the suspects, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) submitted a detainer for Munoz, who they said was in the country illegally.