Trucking news and briefs for Monday, March 23, 2026:
- Attorneys, law firms found guilty in “fraudulent scheme of epic proportions.”
- No valid license, 20 pounds of meth: Mexican truck driver’s alleged wrongdoings.
- Truckers, mind your P’s and Q’s in Arizona later this week.
Two attorneys found guilty for roles in New Orleans staged-crash scheme
Two attorneys associated with the widespread staged-crash scheme in Louisiana were found guilty last week, the Department of Justice announced.
Vanessa Motta and Jason F. Giles were found guilty following a three-week trial. The law firms of Motta Law LLC and The King Firm LLC were also convicted, along with co-conspirator Diamanike F. Stalbert.
The jury found Motta, Motta Law, Giles, and The King Firm guilty of all counts against them. Stalbert was found guilty of making false statements to federal agents. Other guilty convictions for mail and wire fraud, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and making false statements to federal agents were part of the trial's results.
According to court documents, the defendants participated in a long-running scheme to defraud insurance companies and commercial trucking companies by staging and litigating fraudulent collisions to collect insurance company payouts. That scheme began approximately in December 2011 and continued until December 2024, involving New Orleans area personal injury attorneys (including Motta, Motta Law, Giles, and The King Firm) paying “slammers” to recruit passengers to participate in purposeful collisions with automobiles, especially tractor-trailers with large commercial insurance policies.
[Related: New Orleans staged accidents: Guilty plea for murder charge, more]
The attorneys would then litigate those cases on behalf of the passengers, often encouraging those passengers to seek medically unnecessary neck and back surgeries to incur costs and increase the size of future insurance company settlements.
Along with slammers, attorneys, and passengers, the scheme also included “spotters,” who drove getaway cars for the slammers, and “recruiters” like Stalbert, who facilitated numerous staged collisions by bringing new passengers into the scheme.
The jury also found Motta and Motta Law guilty of obstruction of justice and witness tampering relating to an effort to pay a witness to move to the Bahamas to impede cooperation with federal authorities. The jury likewise found Giles and The King Firm guilty of obstruction of justice and witness tampering for secretly recording a charged individual in October 2020 in an effort to manufacture exculpatory evidence.
Stalbert was acquitted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
“Today’s verdict was the culmination of a lengthy investigation that amassed overwhelming evidence proving the defendants’ roles in a years-long scheme to defraud, as well as their subsequent efforts to obstruct justice and tamper with witnesses,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson. “Motta, Motta Law, Giles, and The King Firm successfully launched a fraudulent scheme of epic proportions that both victimized the judicial system, and exploited the auto insurance industry, all to enrich themselves with millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.”
[Related: New Orleans staged accidents: New charges include 'Witness Tampering Through Murder']
Chief U.S. District Judge Wendy B. Vitter will sentence Motta and Motta Law on July 7, Giles and The King Firm on July 14, and Stalbert on July 21.
The maximum penalty for mail fraud, mail and wire fraud conspiracy, and witness tampering is 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and up to a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain to any defendant or twice the gross loss to any victim.
The maximum penalty for obstruction of justice is 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and up to a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain to any defendant or twice the gross loss to any victim.
The maximum penalty for making false statements to a federal agent is up to five years of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release.
The court may also impose restitution. Additionally, each defendant also faces payment of a $100 mandatory special assessment fee per count of conviction.
Including this trial, 63 defendants have been charged in the staged-crash scheme in the New Orleans metropolitan area.
[Related: Eight more sentenced in staged-accident scheme targeting trucks]
Mexican truck driver arrested in Oklahoma, allegedly with 20 pounds of meth
A Mexican national was arrested in Oklahoma on March 11 after being found with more than 20 pounds of methamphetamine in the tractor-trailer he was driving, according to U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester in the Western District of Oklahoma.
Court documents state that, on March 11, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) trooper pulled over a red tractor-trailer in Custer County, Oklahoma.
The driver, Jose Carlos Morales-Gutierrez, did not have a valid driver’s license. During the traffic stop, a K9 unit alerted to the presence of narcotics in the trailer, where law enforcement located a duffel bag containing more than 20 pounds of methamphetamine.
On March 17, Morales-Gutierrez was charged with possession of 500 grams or more of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. If found guilty, he faces up to life in federal prison, and a fine of up to $10 million.
[Related: States consider outright non-domiciled CDL ban, other tough measures]
Two-day blitz planned this week in Arizona
Personnel from the Arizona Department of Transportation, Arizona Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies will conduct an annual concentrated commercial vehicle safety enforcement detail March 25-26 at and around the I-10 Ehrenberg Port of Entry.
Operation Full House, which this year will include more than 50 commercial vehicle inspectors, is conducted as part of the Arizona Commercial Vehicle Safety Partnership made up of ADOT Enforcement and Compliance Division officers and AZDPS State Troopers.
The Ehrenberg Port of Entry is at milepost 3.5 of eastbound I-10, near the California state line.
The operation will place special emphasis on motor carrier safety regulations with emphasis on the following categories:
- Driver qualification, a category in which Arizona state agencies and federal partners conducting inspections in the state issued just more than 3% of all violations in 2025, including English language proficiency, medical cert violations, and CDL/other credentials violations. That's below the national average of roughly 4% of all violations for the category, according to Overdrive sister data company RigDig's mining of federal data.
- Hours of service -- in this category, Arizona is well above the roughly 10% national average, according to RigDig and Overdrive analysis, with more than 15% of all 2025 violations issues related to HOS.
- Moving violations -- Arizona could boost its numbers here with traffic enforcement by troopers during the Operation Full House initiative, as the state underperforms the national average with moving violations accounting for roughly 4% of all violations issued in 2025 in this category.
As usual for any truck-inspection initiative, qualified inspectors will also inspect the vehicle itself "to ensure that commercial drivers and vehicles comply with regulations and state laws," according to officials.
