A Mexican national who was in the country illegally has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. According to court documents, Guillermo Mercado-Chaparro sold a pound of methamphetamine to an undercover police officer. Police followed Mercado-Chaparro after the buy and saw him conduct other drug deals. Several days later, police saw Mercado-Chaparro retrieve two large garbage bags from his pickup truck and place them in a nearby Jeep. Police stopped the Jeep a short time later, and a drug-sniffing dog alerted to the odor of drugs in the Jeep. When police searched the Jeep, they found roughly 250 pounds of methamphetamine in the garbage bags and a cooler. Police then got a search warrant for Mercado-Chapparo’s truck, searched it, and seized roughly 630 more pounds of methamphetamine from the truck bed. Altogether, Mercado-Chaparro had almost 900 pounds of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. This case was investigated and prosecuted by the Minnesota Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) as part of Operation Take Back America.