A Mexican national has been indicted on federal charges for allegedly overseeing a drug trafficking scheme while storing the contraband in Compton, U.S. Department of Justice officials announced Thursday.
The scheme allegedly involved acquiring large quantities of fentanyl and methamphetamine, storing them at a home in Compton and distributing them locally and across the country while sometimes involving the U.S. Postal Service.
Edgar Valentin Felix Osuna, 25, of Sinaloa, Mexico, was arrested in Barstow on Aug. 29 while on his way to Vegas. He was named in a three-count federal grand jury indictment on Wednesday.
Osuna faces charges of conspiring to distribute and to possess fentanyl and methamphetamine. He is also charged with substantive counts of distributing fentanyl and methamphetamine, officials said.
An investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service culminated in a search of a Compton home that led to the seizure of nearly 66 kilograms of fentanyl – including nearly 27,000 counterfeit pills – and about 18.4 kilograms of methamphetamine, officials said.
According to the criminal complaint, from at least 2019, while in Mexico and on federal probation, Osuna facilitated the distribution of fentanyl and other drugs that were being stashed in the home controlled and operated by Juan Gonzalez.
Osuna allegedly obtained the drugs, arranged for deliveries to be made to the stash house, and planned further distribution, officials said. Gonzalez and others allegedly wired the proceeds from the sales to Osuna.
The complaint alleges that drugs from the stash house were sometimes shipped via USPS to addresses in New York, Pennsylvania and Missouri. The parcels were mailed by a drug courier who has since died, but Gonzalez shipped at least one package to an address in Illinois, according to the complaint.
On Feb. 23, 2022, Osuna allegedly directed the distribution of 22 kilograms of meth. Gonzalez was arrested the next day and a search warrant was executed in the stash house that resulted in the seizure of the drugs.
Last year, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to distribution of fentanyl and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, officials said. He was sentenced in January to 15 years in federal prison. Osuna, however, continued to distribute drugs after Gonzalez’s arrest and authorities determined he had returned to the U.S. in late 2022, officials detailed.
Osuna is being held without bond and is set to be arraigned in the indictment on Sept. 21.
Each of the three counts carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life.
