EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Two men are in federal custody after allegedly trying to deliver 20,000 fentanyl pills from a Mexican criminal organization to a Drug Enforcement Administration informant in Phoenix.
The charges against Hector Ivan Hernandez Ramirez and Audomar Valenzuela Sanchez stem from an undercover drug-buy coordinated on April Fool’s Day by the DEA’s East Valley Drug Enforcement Task Force in Phoenix.
Court records show a confidential source arranged for the delivery of a large amount of fentanyl pills stamped “M30” from an unnamed Mexican source of supply – either a drug trafficker or a cartel. A local operative for the supplier contacted the informant and they agreed to meet at a business on Camelback Road in Phoenix.
A black Buick SUV arrived at the location and agents monitoring the delivery witnessed the informant enter the vehicle and give visual and verbal indications that the drug transaction was completed, records show.
The agents moved in and seized 20,000 fentanyl pills and more than an ounce of cocaine.
In interviews with investigators, Hernandez said he only drove Valenzuela to the location as a favor.
However, the confidential informant identified Hernandez as the “broker” of the deal and Valenzuela as the individual who was in physical possession of the drugs inside the SUV, according to a criminal complaint affidavit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.
Both men have been charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. They were scheduled to appear at a detention hearing late Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.
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