By Billy Davis

An interstate drug bust by Mississippi state troopers has concluded with a pair of guilty pleas in Panola County Circuit Court.

Circuit Judge Andrew C. Baker, seated on the bench in Batesville Friday, accepted the pleas from defendants Juan Ortiz and Victor Duque.

Duque was represented by public defender John Watson. William L. Maxey of Grenada represented Ortiz.

Assistant District Attorney Rhonda Amis presented the state’s case.

Authorities alleged Ortiz and Duque participated in a two-vehicle caravan that was transporting 30 kilograms, or approximately 66 pounds, of marijuana along Interstate 55.

The traffic stop was made in Tate County, when a trooper saw a Tahoe following too closely behind a white Ford truck.

The narcotics were found hidden in the Ford truck, which was occupied by Antonio Arellano and Delma Lazoya.

Lazoya, after pleading guilty, has been sentenced to eight years in prison. Arellano is awaiting trial.

Ortiz and Duque were traveling in the Tahoe, which troopers tied to Arellano and Lazoya when they learned the two vehicles were communicating with cell phones.

A drug dog alerted to the presence of drugs in the Tahoe but no drugs were found, according to court testimony.

The Friday court hearing, scheduled as a suppression hearing, was intended for Baker to hear arguments over whether the cell phones could be used as evidence by prosecutors to tie Ortiz and Duque to the narcotics. But the defendants instead decided to plead guilty.

“This was a very defensible case, but my client wants to return to work and return to his family,” Maxey told the court.

“I agree it could have been a defensible case,” Watson added.

Baker sentenced Ortiz and Duque to five years in prison, then suspended the sentence, because they are Mexican citizens and will be deported to Mexico.

Neither defendant had a criminal record and Baker also considered Ortiz and Duque had spent 350 days in jail awaiting trial.

The defendants, if caught in the United States after deportation, would be sentenced to 20 years in prison, Amis explained after court proceedings.