VANCOUVER, Wash. -- A convicted drug dealer will be deported to Mexico for a third time once he finishes a sentence of more than 12 years in jail in the U.S.

A judge sentenced 29-year-old Sanbino Garcia-Quiroz to 151 months in jail for conspiracy to possess and intent to distribute methamphetamine Tuesday.

He was arrested in January, 2006 after returning to Vancouver with more than eight pounds of highly purified meth, known as “ice.”

Investigators had been focusing on Garcia-Quiroz as part of “Operation Methopotomia,” targeting the flow of the drugs up the I-5 corridor from Mexico.

Garcia-Quiroz pleaded guilty four months later.

“Victimizing other families is no way to get out of your own predicament or poverty,” U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton said.

Officials said Garcia-Quiroz was deported after drug convictions twice in the past, and after his prison term would be deported again to Mexico.