Drug smuggler to serve 60 months
By Terry Murry on Friday, December 22nd, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PORTLAND – The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland announced Thursday that Daniel Martin Ponce-Gonzalez will serve 60 months in a federal prison. He was arrested on Highway 97 in Klamath County in June 2021.
Court records indicate that Ponce-Gonzalez was found with more than 55 pounds of methamphetamine and over a thousand fentanyl pills at the time of his arrest. He was indicted on a single count of possessing with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.
In its news release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated it was believed Ponce-Gonzalez was living in the Yakima area. However, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he is a Mexican national who is unlawfully present in this country.
According to a news release issued by ICE in 2021, the agency lodged an immigration detainer on Ponce-Gonzalez at the Klamath County Jail following his arrest. ICE removed the man from the U.S. to Mexico in 2007 and he voluntarily returned to Mexico in July 2010 after begin encountered by U.S. Border Patrol.
Photo of Ponce-Gonzalez provided by David Cross
