JACKSON, MS—Two men are facing federal methamphetamine trafficking charges following an investigation into drug trafficking in south Mississippi.

A federal criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on June 13, 2017, charges Steven Paul Salmon, 55, and Hector Serrano-Cruz, 41, both of Gulfport, Mississippi, with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

On June 6, 2017, The South Mississippi Metro Enforcement Team (SMMET) seized eight ounces of methamphetamine on Tucker Road in the Latimer area of Jackson County, Mississippi. The resulting joint investigation by the Pascagoula FBI Safe Streets Task Force and the SMMET led to the additional seizure of three pounds of methamphetamine in Gulfport.

On June 12, 2017, FBI Safe Streets Task Force and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents set up a surveillance of alleged drug traffickers associated with the seized methamphetamine.

Steven Paul Salmon and Hector Serrano-Cruz were arrested by agents on Community Road in Gulfport. Serrano-Cruz was allegedly supplying Salmon with methamphetamine that was being delivered to the Mississippi Gulf Coast from California.

Salmon and Serrano-Cruz appeared before United States Magistrate Judge John C. Gargiulo on Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in Gulfport. Both were ordered held without bond pending a Preliminary and Detention Hearing set for 2 p.m. on June 15, 2017. If convicted of these charges, the defendants face a penalty of 10 years to life in a federal penitentiary.

The FBI Safe Streets Task Force is a Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area 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.