A mom in The Woodlands tells KHOU 11 News that she was wrongly charged in a Colorado drug trafficking case. The reason? A phone number she hadn’t used in years.
HOUSTON — A mother in The Woodlands is demanding accountability after she was wrongly linked to a Colorado drug trafficking case.
In 2024, Gabriela Olds was searching for jobs after earning a master’s in finance. A friend suggested she Google her name to see what prospective employers may find online.
Instead of her LinkedIn profile, she found a video of a press conference from 2023, in which a Colorado district attorney named her as one of more than 20 defendants accused of working with a Mexican drug cartel to sell fentanyl.
“I felt like I was out of my body looking in,” Olds said. “I’ve never been in trouble with the law before. I’ve never gotten a speeding ticket. I was just in complete shock.”
The thing is — Olds had not lived in Colorado for years. She told KHOU 11 News that she moved to the Houston area with her family in 2021. The indictment claimed she was involved in drug trafficking long after she’d left the state.
“I couldn’t go outside,” she said. “I was scared I was going to be pulled over and arrested.”
Her attorney, Ashley White with the Baker Law Group, said the mistake stemmed from an old phone number once used by Olds. Investigators linked the number to one of the actual suspects in the case. But Olds said she hadn’t used that number since 2013 — more than 10 years before she was indicted.
“They cut corners, they didn’t do a thorough investigation, and they put Gabby’s name and photo all over the media,” White said.
According to White, authorities even conducted surveillance on a woman using the number and mistook her for Olds.
“Situations like this happen,” White said. “A person’s liberty, a person’s freedom, a person’s reputation can suffer really significant damage. And that’s what’s happened here.”
The charges were eventually dropped, but Olds said the experience has left lasting damage. She has not yet received an apology or any form of restitution.
“If I didn’t have the money to get an attorney, I’d probably have to turn myself in and I’d be in jail right now awaiting trial,” she said. “There needs to be accountability.”
In a statement provided to KHOU 11 News sister station KUSA 9 in Colorado, the Adams County district attorney’s office involved in the case acknowledged that Olds does not have a criminal record, but said it could not comment further due to ongoing legal proceedings.