A senior noncommissioned officer based out of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, faces numerous charges tied to a yearslong scheme to smuggle methamphetamine across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Military prosecutors say Sgt. Maj. Jorge E. Garcia, the career counselor for U.S. Army Forces Command, or FORSCOM, made numerous unauthorized trips abroad between 2021 and 2022, smuggled meth, lied to his unit about his whereabouts, engaged in fraudulent charges on his government travel card at a nightclub near the Pentagon, and coordinated the drug activity with gangs online.
It’s the latest in a string of drug-related criminal activity from soldiers at Fort Liberty, the base previously known as Fort Bragg, and the highest-profile installation in the Army — serving as the home of the 82nd Airborne Division and several of the service’s elite special operations units.
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Garcia, who has been in military pretrial confinement since June 2023, and his attorney could not be reached for comment ahead of publication. It was unclear as of Thursday whether Garcia had entered a plea to the military court or if he will face additional charges from a civilian court.
Court documents say Garcia traveled abroad or lied about his whereabouts at least five times since 2021. Authorities said at least one of those occasions included travel to Tijuana, Mexico. That trip…
