Two Mexican men arrested in El Monte last year with over a million fentanyl tablets were sentenced to ten years in federal prison today.
In April, Florencio Camacho Allan, 29, and co-defendant Gerardo Gaxiola Patiño, 30, pled guilty in Los Angeles federal court to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, according to the US Attorney’s Office. Another co-defendant, Alex Valdez Oroz, 26, pleaded guilty to the crime and is expected to be sentenced on September 10.
According to authorities, the defendants plotted to distribute fentanyl with one another and others between September 2022 and March 2023. Before March 7, 2023, a Mexico-based drug broker reached an agreement with a buyer to sell around 2 million fentanyl pills.
The transaction was to take place in the Los Angeles area, and the buyer agreed to pay 75 cents each pill. According to court documents, the buyer agreed to first acquire a sample “box” of 10,000 fentanyl pills for the same sum.
On March 7, 2023, the drug broker scheduled a meeting between Allan and the buyer for that day at Denny’s in El Segundo to purchase the sample fentanyl pills. Later that day, Allan, Patiño, and Oroz arrived in a white sedan at Denny’s. While Oroz waited in the driver’s seat, Allan and Patiño met the customer and their colleague inside the restaurant. They discussed selling 1 million more fentanyl tablets later that day and another 1 million the next day.
Following the meeting, Allan, Patiño, the buyer, and the associate proceeded to the car. Patiño grabbed a black bag containing around 10,082 fentanyl tablets, weighing nearly 2.5 pounds, and presented them to the buyer for $7,500. The three defendants then drove off.
Later that day, Allan confirmed with one of the buyers that they had the larger set of pills and displayed the pills to one of the purchasers via WhatsApp video call, which seemed to be in the car’s trunk. According to the US Attorney’s Office, they agreed to carry out the one-million-pill fentanyl deal in a Holiday Inn parking lot.
Law enforcement officers detained Allan and Oroz in the Holiday Inn parking lot. Officers apprehended Patiño in a hotel lobby bathroom.
Authorities discovered at least three duffle bags in the trunk and backseat, each carrying bundles of fentanyl pills. Federal prosecutors said the defendants knowingly had and intended to distribute over 1 million fentanyl tablets, weighing approximately 241 pounds.