Crime & Safety

GA Inmate Shipped Meth To Virginia From Behind Bars: Prosecutors

Abel Gallegos Hernandez sentenced to 15 years of federal time for arranging a massive drug shipment from New Mexico to Western Virginia.

Abel Gallegos Hernandez sentenced to 15 years of federal time for arranging a massive drug shipment from New Mexico to Western Virginia.
Abel Gallegos Hernandez sentenced to 15 years of federal time for arranging a massive drug shipment from New Mexico to Western Virginia. (Shutterstock)

GEORGIA — An inmate serving time in southeast Georgia was moving methamphetamine from New Mexico to Virginia from behind bars, prosecutors said.

Abel Gallegos Hernandez, 30, was sentenced last week to 15 years in prison for one count of conspiring to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and one count of aiding and abetting another’s attempt to knowingly and intentionally possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. Hernandez pleaded guilty in federal court in June 2020.

According to prosecutors, while Hernandez was locked up at McRae Correctional Facility in 2018, he arranged four separate shipments of virtually pure methamphetamine to the Waynesboro, VA, area. From January to June of that year, authorities said he used Facebook and a smuggled cell phone to direct his accomplices to stash the drugs inside the tires of cars being shipped across the country on 18-wheeled car-haulers, prosecutors said.

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In all, he shipped nearly 30 kilograms of methamphetamine, authorities said.


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