Three Men Arrested for Trafficking Drugs Into Mobile
By Dale Hines
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
March 31, 2026
MOBILE, AL. A federal law enforcement investigation has landed three men behind bars on drug trafficking and conspiracy charges according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Th investigation uncovered an alleged cocaine trafficking network tied to the Gulf Cartel — a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization — with distribution routes stretching from Mexico into South Alabama.
Federal law enforcement who were conducting an investigation into the distribution ring were able to arrest Santiago Fuentes-Leal, Alfredo Delgado-Aleman, and Oscar Alberto Hernandez-Ramirez.
According to a federal affidavit filed in the Southern District of Alabama, Fuentes-Leal allegedly served as a cocaine source of supply for Gulf Cartel members operating in the United States and Mexico. Investigators say he used Delgado-Aleman to coordinate cocaine shipments across the U.S.-Mexico border — with the drugs concealed inside vehicle batteries.
Now, all three are each charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. Prosecutors allege the conspiracy ran from 2022 through February 2026.
Court documents detail a specific cocaine shipment in December 2025, in which Fuentes-Leal allegedly coordinated the delivery of six kilograms of cocaine from Matamoros, Mexico, to Woodville, Texas, with a final destination of Mobile.
Investigators say Hernandez-Ramirez was tasked with couriering the cocaine. On December 27, 2025, he crossed into the United States from Matamoros through the Brownsville, Texas Gateway Bridge Port of Entry, driving a white 2026 Toyota Sequoia. He was traveling with a woman and two young children, including a four-year-old and a two-month-old infant.
That evening, Woodville Police Department officers spotted the Sequoia sitting stationary in a Walmart parking lot, parked away from other vehicles, with no one exiting the vehicle. A court-authorized wire intercept captured a photograph sent from a Mexico-based phone number showing the vehicle’s location in the parking lot, followed by messages in Spanish confirming its position.
Officers conducted a traffic stop shortly after the vehicle left the lot. A narcotics-detection K-9 alerted to the smell of drugs. A probable cause search of the vehicle turned up six kilograms of cocaine hidden inside two Christmas gift bags in the passenger compartment.
Hernandez-Ramirez was arrested and taken to the Tyler County Detention Center. He later told investigators he was willing to cooperate but wanted an attorney present, and stated in Spanish that his role was not complicated — that he simply received a location to pick up and drop off cocaine shipments.
Investigators say Fuentes-Leal himself illegally crossed into the United States in February 2026, allegedly to personally coordinate the delivery of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine in the Houston, Texas area, with plans to distribute the drugs to locations across the country, including Mobile, Alabama.
According to the affidavit, Fuentes-Leal crossed from Matamoros into Brownsville on the night of February 2, 2026, without going through an authorized port of entry. He is a Mexican national and, according to investigators, had no valid immigration documents permitting his presence in the United States.
The cooperating defendant picked up Fuentes-Leal and drove him to a family member’s residence in Brownsville. The following day, the two traveled together to a Homeland Security Investigations controlled warehouse in Houston — which was equipped with live audio and video recording equipment.
Inside the warehouse, Fuentes-Leal allegedly made phone calls attempting to arrange the delivery of 300 to 500 kilograms of cocaine from other Gulf Cartel members to the warehouse, where it would then be distributed by couriers throughout the United States.
Court documents include a translated transcript of one of those calls, in which Fuentes-Leal tells an unidentified man: “Yes, whatever they have, bro, tell them whatever they have. Three hundred, five hundred.”
On the evening of February 4, 2026, investigators coordinated with the Texas Department of Public Safety to conduct a traffic stop in Houston. A state trooper identified Fuentes-Leal as a passenger in the vehicle and determined he was unlawfully present in the United States. He was detained by federal immigration authority.
Fuentes-Leal is currently being held in the Escambia County, AL jail.
Hernandez-Ramirez is being held in the Tyler County Jail in Texas
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