Two alleged drug smugglers were acquitted in California after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported the prosecution's key witness to Mexico, a stunning collapse of a federal meth case that critics say shows how the Trump administration's deportation drive can clash with criminal prosecutions.
The witness, identified by the pseudonym Javier Hernandez, had agreed to testify against two co-defendants after a 2015 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raid in Fontana uncovered nearly 22 pounds of meth hidden in a vehicle. But six months before trial, ICE detained him during a routine check-in and deported him to Tijuana in March 2025, without consulting the federal prosecutors who needed him in court.
