Jose Jesus Torres Garcia used his social media account to drum up sales for his illicit drug business.
Now, after federal agents got wind of his advertising, the 30-year-old Fresno man is headed to prison for six years on drug and gun charges.
U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced the prison term in a news release after Torres Garcia’s sentencing Monday by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd.
According to court documents, in May 2021, law enforcement saw that Torres Garcia was using his social media account to advertise “M30” pills, which are counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl. Officers executed a search warrant at Torres Garcia’s residence and found a loaded, short-barrel rifle and several hundred fentanyl pills packaged for sale.
Torres Garcia pleaded guilty on Sept. 27, 2021.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin J. Gilio prosecuted the case.
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Mexican National Gets 63 Months in Prison
In another case Monday, Jesus Adrian Pena-Gamez, 33, a Mexican national illegally living in Bakersfield, was sentenced to five years, three months in prison for fentanyl trafficking.
According to court documents, on April 7, 2021, Pena-Gamez and co-defendant Carlos Ivan Campana met in a Bakersfield restaurant parking lot to sell 15,000 counterfeit M30 pills containing fentanyl. During the meeting, Pena-Gamez and Campana were arrested and officers recovered about 3 pounds of pills with fentanyl from Pena-Gamez’s vehicle.
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Charges are pending against Campana, whose whereabouts are unknown after he violated his pretrial release conditions, the Department of Justice said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher D. Baker is prosecuting the case.
