Sioux City man pleads guilty to transporting drugs from Mexico

10/7/06

SIOUX CITY, Iowa A Sioux City man has pleaded guilty to helping transport marijuana and steroids from the Mexican border to Iowa.

Thomas Rogers Junior is one of several people charged in a drug ring that smuggled more than 22 hundred pounds of drugs from Mexico since 2001. The ring specialized in marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and steroids.

Rogers will be sentenced in January in the U-S District Court in Sioux City. He faces between five and 40 years in prison.

His sentence could be reduced for cooperating with U-S attorneys prosecuting other defendants in the case.

The government has charged Ryan Mathison of Sioux City with overseeing the operation. Mathison, his parents and a brother are scheduled to stand trial November 6th.

Constantine Klimiades of Des Moines and Jason Courtney of Dakota City are also charged in the ring.