2 men sentenced after 700 pounds of meth found hidden in cucumber shipment, DOJ says

More than 700 pounds of methamphetamine hidden among boxes of cucumbers has landed two men in federal prison for 15 years each.

Rufino Pineda-Perez, 61, of Mexico, and Andres Jasso Jr., 39, of Brookhaven, were sentenced for their roles in a drug shipment uncovered outside a Gainesville warehouse, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.

"The defendants attempted to conceal an astonishing amount of deadly methamphetamine in a cucumber shipment, but the diligent and strategic efforts of law enforcement partners uncovered their ruse," U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said in a statement.

DEA agents were watching a tractor-trailer parked at the warehouse on June 30, 2025, when they saw Jasso and Pineda-Perez in a sedan beside it, prosecutors said.

Agents searched the truck and found 20 pallets of cucumber boxes containing thousands of individually wrapped packages of methamphetamine. Investigators said the men had been assigned to unload the boxes and separate the drugs from the cucumbers.

Both men pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to possess methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it. Pineda-Perez also pleaded guilty to illegally returning to the United States after being deported.

Pineda-Perez had previously been deported twice and convicted of two felonies, including a 2015 federal drug case involving nearly a kilogram of cocaine in the Atlanta area, prosecutors said.

Each man will serve 10 years of supervised release after completing their 15-year prison sentence. Federal prisoners are not eligible for parole.