Life on the road can be lonely, hard, and even monotonous at times. Despite it all, many truck drivers love it, and they don’t know what they’d do without this career choice. When times get tough, they find healthy ways to manage. Some manage by picking up new hobbies that can help with stress relief, such as exercising. Then there are others who commit acts of crime that sometimes give trucking a bad rap. While the majority of truckers spend their rare bits of spare time being productive and even philanthropical, some drivers choose to wreak havoc. With that said, let’s take a look at some of the most scandalous crimes committed by truckers.
Famous Crimes Committed by Truckers
Drug dealings and doings
There are drivers using drugs, and there are others who are simply hauling drugs. Apparently, there are even trucking businesses that are actually meth distribution centers. In 2018 CDL Life reported that Jaquez Brothers Trucking was distributing meth in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The owner, Javier Jaquez, is facing charges of intent to distribute more than 500g of drugs, conspiracy, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. The dance between drugs and trucking is one that goes way, way back, and there are plenty of stories to tell about times when truck drivers have doubled in the drug business. Some charges include transporting heroin and cocaine, and others drinking and driving on the highway. Some notorious crimes we dug up include Cesar Carillo-Gomez, a California based truck driver who was convicted in 2014 for transporting more than $1 million in heroin and other drugs. His also had an expired license at the time. Another driver, Mauro Cano Moreno, was a trucker in South Texas who was accused in 2016 of transporting 132 pounds of cocaine, which has a worth of a little over $4 million.
Murder madness
There are many truck drivers over the years who have made headlines with murder charges. For example, John Robert Williams was a long-haul trucker who was convicted of two murders in the early 2000s. They linked him to seven more and he is possibly responsible for up to 12 murders overall. Both known victims were young women, ages 19 and 20. Police only discovered this boastful, young man after he bragged about one of the murders to a friend. His friend then tipped the police. Another, Keith Hunter Jesperson, is known as “the Happy Face Killer.” He took advantage of his frequent travels and confessed to murdering people all across the United States. He only became a suspect following the murder of his fiancé. When police brought him in for questioning, he allegedly confessed to over 150 murders. Jesperson’s antics earned him three life sentences in an Oregon prison. The third murderer to mention is Sean Patrick Goble. Goble was an unlikely suspect considering that most people referred to him as a gentle giant. He was 6’3” and weighed over 300 lbs. But then someone discovered a dead woman on the side of the road in Virginia. Someone ran her over with a big rig and she had Goble’s fingerprints all over her. Goble allegedly confessed to two other murders after his apprehension.
Kidnapping and trafficking
As we learned from our many conversations with Truckers Against Trafficking, sex or human trafficking is a major ongoing issue in the trucking industry. Although there are many truckers out there who train to identify the signs of trafficking and how to report it, there are others who are actively purchasing, hiding, and abusing trafficking victims. Luckily, people continue to raise awareness of these crimes committed by truckers. More and more people are caught and convicted each year. In 2015, Timothy Jay Vafeades was accused of keeping sex slaves in his truck with him for months on end, physically and emotionally torturing them. A more famous truck driver, Timothy Zickuhr from the show Ice Road Truckers, allegedly kidnapped a prostitute in Las Vegas. He believed that she stole money from him. Zickuhr allegedly tied the woman up and kept her in a closet. He later admitted that he planned to put the woman on Craigslist and try to make money off of her.
So, there you have it – some of the most famous crimes comitted by truckers. All it takes is a few bad guys to give such a respectable industry a bad name, but it does make for an interesting story. What are some of the most memorable crimes you’ve read about over the years? Share with us in the comments below!
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