BATON ROUGE – A El Salvadorian national arrested by the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office in February has pleaded guilty to possessing 361 pounds of meth he intended to distribute. 

According to a federal judge on Thursday, 19-year-old Edenilson Alexander Castaneda-Del Valle was the passenger of a car stopped by deputies on I-12 on Feb. 7, 2026.

The car, admissions made during the plea revealed, had a hidden compartment where three backpacks and one large garbage bag of methamphetamine were found. Deputies found cabbage-sized bundles in the plastic garbage bag

The street value of the drugs seized is estimated at just under $4 million. At the time of the bust, authorities called the meth seizure one of the biggest in Louisiana history.

More than $7,000 in cash was also found in the backpack. 

Castaneda-Del Valle faces at least 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10 million. 

Another man—Jostin Antonio Orellana-Romero—was also arrested and indicted in connection with the drug bust.