CA Man Gets 7 Years for Shipping 30 Pounds of Drugs to Atlantic City

A man from California will be spending the next 7 1/2-years behind bars for shipping nearly 30 pounds of crystal meth to Atlantic City and conspiring to send an additional 5 kilos of fentanyl into the Garden State.

35-year-old Jesus Zavala-Torres of San Jacinto, CA, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and a quantity of fentanyl earlier this year.

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The prison sentence was handed-down on Wednesday in federal court in Camden.

Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig's office says,

In September 2018, law enforcement officers received information that an individual identified as Isabel Otanez-Sanchez, was shipping large quantities of narcotics to New Jersey from California. On Jan. 28, 2019, Sanchez agreed to send 30 pounds of methamphetamine to a law enforcement confidential source (the “CS”) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Zavala-Torres and Sanchez hid 28 packages of methamphetamine inside a salvaged vehicle that was shipped from California to New Jersey. Agents recovered the 28 packages, totaling approximately 30 pounds, from the car’s gas tank. On Feb. 12, 2019, the CS met with Sanchez and Zavala-Torres in Riverside, California. At this meeting, Sanchez and Zavala-Torres also agreed to sell an additional five kilograms of fentanyl that would be shipped to the CS in New Jersey in the same manner as the methamphetamine.

After the meeting on February 12th, Sanchez, and Zavala-Torres were arrested and the five kilograms of fentanyl they intended to ship to New Jersey were recovered.

27-year-old Isabel Otanez-Sanchez, also of San Jacinto, was sentenced late last month to the same prison term.