Spare tire lands California man six years

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A California man will serve six years in federal prison for his role in delivering tens of thousands of doses’ worth of methamphetamine to Southern Oregon that he’d kept hidden inside a spare tire. Pedro Ibarra-Aragon, 20, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court on a trafficking charge after he helped deliver 4.2 kilograms of meth — a little more than 9-1/4 pounds — to undercover police in Grants Pass during a sting operation. Ibarra-Aragon was one of two men captured Jan. 4, 2018, at the Motel 6 in Grants Pass, after an informant ordered 10 pounds of meth through a dealer known as “Manny.” Detectives with Rogue Area Drug Enforcement noticed that the lowered green GMC pickup driven by Ibarra-Aragon and co-defendant Jaime Hernandez-Vasquez had a spare tire under its bed “nearly hanging on the ground,” according to court documents filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A drug-sniffing K-9 flagged the tire, and detectives took it to a Les Schwab to be removed. Inside the tire police found 10 vacuum-sealed packages of meth totaling 4.2 kilograms (9.259 pounds), amounting to more than 42,000 individual doses. Hernandez-Vasquez was sentenced to three years in federal prison in November.