July 5, 2021 – 9:30 p.m.
RUSSELLVILLE, ARKANSAS — Arkansas State Police Trooper Chris Goodman conducted a traffic stop in Russellville, Arkansas when he observed a silver Hyundai Santa Fe driving on and then crossing the center-line divider of Interstate 40. Heriberto Felix Ruiz was the front seat passenger, and — having rented the car two days earlier in California — his name was on the car’s rental agreement.
When the driver of the car and Ruiz gave conflicting stories to Trooper Goodman, he responded by asking for permission to search their vehicle. This conversation happened in Spanish, and Ruiz consented to the search.
Trooper Goodman ultimately found six packages wrapped in duct tape and hidden in the vehicle’s spare tire‚ which he had noticed was a 15-inch tire despite the vehicle requiring 17-inch tires.
The packages turned out to contain more than 15 pounds of fentanyl, which had a street value of more than $6 million. A grand jury charged Ruiz with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, and then the story took an unexpected turn.
An auto salvage company contacted law enforcement to report they had located a suspicious package in a vehicle they had purchased at auction from a car rental company. The vehicle was the same Hyundai Santa Fe from this traffic stop…and it contained an additional five kilograms of fentanyl that had not been found in the initial search.
A grand jury charged Ruiz and other in a Superseding Indictment to increase the amount of fentanyl involved in the offense. Ruiz pleaded guilty on October 10, 2019, and on May 21, 2020 United States Chief District Court Judge D. Price Marshall, Jr., sentenced Ruiz to eleven years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.
