Texas man headed to prison after $150K & shoes found in hidden compartment on MS Coast

A Texas man will spend 20 years in prison after police found thousands of dollars in a secret compartment of his car and determined it was payment connected to a drug network operating between Mexico, Texas and Moss Point.

A federal judge sentenced Jose Humberto Gandara, 52, in U.S. District Court in Gulfport, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.

A jury convicted him in January of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

Trial testimony showed Gandara, who is from Edinburg, Texas, had been stopped by authorities multiple times across states.

Police stopped him in 2016 while he was driving a Volkswagen Jetta in Gulfport, the release said. They found nearly $150,000 hidden in a compartment under the center console. He denied knowledge of that money, authorities said.

But in that compartment, officers also found a pair of shoes. They sliced into them to see if they held a tracker, the release said. Gandara asked why. And when police told him they had discovered the shoes in the compartment, he admitted to moving the money for a percentage, the release said.

It is unclear why the shoes led Gandara to admit moving money.

He also denied knowledge of any drugs, but police said photos on his cell phone showed bricks of cocaine.

In January 2015 — in a different Volkswagen Jetta — authorities stopped Gandara and a man he identified as his employee at the U.S.-Mexico border. Border Patrol agents found 12 kilograms of cocaine in the same style of hidden compartment officers had discovered in the Jetta in Gulfport, according to the release.

And eight months later, authorities stopped Gandara again — this time in Alabama.

They found almost $360,000 divided into bundles wrapped in green plastic and stuffed into the front seats of the car he was driving, the release said.

Gandara denied knowledge of the money, but it matched another bundle found in a duffel bag Gandara claimed was his, the release said.

Trial evidence showed Gandara worked for a drug supplier in Texas that imported cocaine from Mexico.

Investigators later determined the $150,000 seized in Gulfport was payment for cocaine headed to Moss Point.