The District Court of Guam in Hagåtña is shown Monday, Nov. 21, 2022. David Castro/The Guam Daily Post
HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A man pleaded guilty to attempted possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine in connection to a nearly 4-pound drug package mailed from Utah in 2020.
Joseph Mesa Babauta appeared in the District Court of Guam on Monday afternoon after a plea agreement was filed in the case accusing him of opening a package that contained meth.
Senior Judge Alex Munson accepted Babauta’s guilty plea to the charge of attempted possession with intent to distribute meth. Babauta faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
Munson scheduled Babauta’s sentencing for July 24.
According to the plea agreement, Babauta and co-defendant Francisco Herrera Salas were detained by federal authorities in December 2020 after they intercepted three packages from Utah, one of which was found to contain meth.
Days after the package was intercepted, Salas picked it up from the Tamuning post office. By that time, postal inspectors had replaced the drugs with an inert substance and used a tracking device to follow it.
Authorities followed Salas to Hågat before they were alerted the package had been opened. They found it in the passenger seat of a different vehicle driven by Babauta, who was pulled over. Salas, at the time, was walking on the road and when he saw the traffic stop he attempted to flee but was eventually detained along with Babauta.
After being processed, both Babauta and Salas refused to make statements without a lawyer present.
“When the postal inspector asked him (Babauta) for his name, defendant said, ‘I don’t want to say anything until I talk to a lawyer. I know my life is over. I really f—ed up, so I don’t want to say anything until I talk to a lawyer,’” court documents state.
Babauta was told to give his biographical information but refused.
The substance found in the package was later found to have a net weight of 1,781.1 grams, or nearly 4 pounds, of 99% pure methamphetamine hydrochloride.
Salas’ case remains active in the federal court and is scheduled to go to trial next month, according to court filings.
