FBI Jackson
Public Affairs Officer Marshay Lawson
(601)-948-5000 | fbijacksonmedia@fbi.gov
May 12, 2017

Law Enforcement Arrests Two in Jackson County, Mississippi for Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Distribute

JACKSON, MS—Two females traveling from Texas through south Mississippi were arrested on Wednesday, May 10, 2017, and charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

Just before 9 a.m. on May 10, 2017, officers with the South Mississippi Metro Enforcement Team observed a driver operating a vehicle carelessly on Interstate 10 in Jackson County near mile marker 56, and initiated a traffic stop on Miss. Highway 57. The two female occupants of the vehicle, Yohanna Ruiz-Guerra, 37, of Houston, Texas and Evelyn Juarez, 19, of Humble, Texas, gave consent to search the vehicle and officers discovered one kilogram of cocaine. Officers then placed Guerra and Juarez under arrest and moved the vehicle to a secure location.

Special Agents from the FBI, Task Force Officers from the FBI’s Pascagoula Safe Streets Task Force, and officers from the South Mississippi MET conducted a thorough search of the vehicle locating more cocaine. A total of 13.2 pounds of cocaine were found in the vehicle.

Ruiz-Guerra and Juarez appeared before United States Magistrate Judge John C. Gargiulo on Thursday, May 11, 2017 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in Gulfport. Both were ordered held without bond until a preliminary and detention hearing set for 10 a.m. on May 17, 2017.

The FBI Safe Streets Task Force is a Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) initiative and receives funding from the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, D.C. It is made up of special agents from the FBI and law enforcement officers from the Pascagoula, Moss Point, Gautier, and Ocean Springs police departments; the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics; and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.

These charges are merely an accusation and all subjects are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.