SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A San Antonio man who imported large amounts of methamphetamine from Mexico and had drivers move it around the city in hidden vehicle compartments has been sentenced to 190 months — more than 15 years — in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas announced.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Alfredo Landin, 28, also known as “Fredo,” was sentenced in federal court in San Antonio for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of a substance containing methamphetamine. U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons announced the sentence.
According to court documents cited by prosecutors, Landin imported large amounts of methamphetamine from Mexico — a drug he called “candy” — and distributed it to numerous dealers across the San Antonio area.
Drivers, hidden compartments and 10-kilo runs
Court documents say Landin arranged for drivers to deliver 10 or more kilograms of narcotics at a time, concealed in hidden compartments built into vehicles. Prosecutors say that method let the network move bulk quantities through ordinary traffic on San Antonio's streets and highways without the loads being visible.
The clearest single episode in the court record dates to July 19, 2021. Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) found approximately eight kilograms of methamphetamine and 3.5 kilograms of heroin inside a car that was on its way to drop the narcotics off to Landin in Indian Creek, a neighbourhood in southwest San Antonio, prosecutors said.
Arrest, guilty plea — and a second sentence already running
Landin was arrested on April 19, 2024, and pleaded guilty on March 4, 2025. His case did not end there: in June of this year he was sentenced to 151 months in a separate case in which he had also pleaded guilty to trafficking methamphetamine, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
“Alfredo Landin was responsible for importing large amounts of methamphetamine and heroin from Mexico to exploit our communities for financial gain,” U.S. Attorney Simmons said. “Thanks to the tireless efforts of our DEA and DPS partners, we were able to interdict a large shipment of narcotics just before it was delivered to Landin, who will now spend more than 15 years in federal prison concurrent with another 12½-year sentence he is already serving.” The new 190-month sentence will therefore run at the same time as the 151-month sentence from the separate case.
Why this case matters beyond San Antonio
San Antonio sits on Interstate 35, one of the busiest north-south freight corridors in the United States, linking the border city of Laredo with Dallas, Austin and the Midwest. Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Texas regularly bring cases in which bulk narcotics cross from Mexico and are broken down in San Antonio for distribution across Texas and beyond. For the Punjabi truckers and owner-operators who run the I-35 corridor, cases built around drivers and hidden compartments are also a warning the community hears often from enforcement agencies: a paid “delivery” with no questions asked can end in a federal conspiracy charge, because prosecutors charge the whole network, not only the person who owns the drugs.
Methamphetamine cases of this size are prosecuted federally in part because of the quantities involved: the charge Landin pleaded to — conspiracy involving 500 grams or more of a methamphetamine mixture — is among the most serious standard drug-trafficking counts in U.S. federal law, and the 190-month term reflects both the amounts in the court record and his separate trafficking case.
What happens next
Landin will serve his sentence in the federal prison system. There is no parole in the U.S. federal system, so a federal sentence is served in full subject only to limited good-time credit. His 190-month term runs concurrently with the 151-month sentence imposed in June, meaning the longer sentence sets the outer limit of the time he will serve for the two cases together.