Federal prosecutors say a 34-year-old New Mexico man kept a drug distribution operation running inside the United States even while he was locked up in a Mexican prison on separate drug charges.
Felix Anthony Salazar III was charged this week, along with several co-defendants who were already in custody. Salazar turned himself in to U.S. authorities at an international port of entry in El Paso late last week, shortly after his release from the Mexican prison.
The case traces back to September 2025, when a New Mexico-based task force opened an investigation into a drug trafficking group allegedly moving methamphetamine and fentanyl smuggled across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
According to federal indictments, Salazar directed at least three controlled drug sales from his prison cell. In the first, in September 2025, he allegedly arranged for 28-year-old Yadira Lizett Lizcano to drive a 16-year-old boy who served as the delivery courier. The buyer, an undercover agent, paid $3,800 for one kilogram of methamphetamine.
Less than two weeks later, prosecutors say Salazar coordinated a second sale, this time half a kilogram of meth for $1,800. Moses Andrew Gonzales and Martha Janeth Grijalva Fierro, both 36, allegedly carried out the delivery to undercover agents.
A week after that, authorities arranged a third transaction in which Salazar allegedly sold a package of meth and fentanyl pills for $2,000. Prosecutors say 31-year-old Suleima Eidali Miranda directed undercover agents to a house where the deal took place.
All of the individuals named in the case — Salazar, Lizcano, Gonzales, Grijalva Fierro and Miranda — have been arrested and face drug conspiracy charges.
