LOS ANGELES
A federal grand jury has indicted two men who allegedly supplied fentanyl-laced pills and methamphetamine to a drug trafficking organization that used the darknet and encrypted messaging applications to sell narcotics, officials stated.
The drugs were sold to thousands of customers in all 50 states across the country, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
The two-count indictment returned on October 25 charges Omar Navia, 38, of South Los Angeles, and Adan Ruiz, 27, of Garden Grove, with one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Ruiz is also charged with one count of distribution of fentanyl.
Navia and Ruiz were arrested on November 2 and arraigned that same day in federal court in Los Angeles. Both defendants pleaded not guilty, and a December 26 trial date was scheduled for them. Navia and Ruiz were ordered jailed without bond.
According to the indictment, Navia and Ruiz conspired with Rajiv Srinivasan, 38, of Houston, and Michael Ta, 25, of Westminster, who were indicted last year by a federal grand jury and pleaded guilty this year to similar charges.
Srinivasan also pleaded guilty to the distribution of fentanyl, resulting in death.
In their plea agreements, co-conspirators Srinivasan and Ta admitted that their drug trafficking activities caused the death of three individuals and that they sold fentanyl-laced pills to two others who died of drug overdoses soon thereafter.
Srinivasan and Ta await sentencing next year before United States District Judge David O. Carter in Santa Ana.
As alleged in the indictment, co-conspirator Srinivasan advertised and accepted orders for counterfeit M30 oxycodone pills containing fentanyl and other narcotics through the vendor account “redlight labs” on multiple darknet marketplaces.
Navia and Ruiz allegedly communicated with co-conspirator Srinivasan regarding drug orders, including through encrypted messaging applications such as “Session” and “Signal,” as well as direct Instagram messages.
Navia and Ruiz then delivered controlled substances to Ta for mailing to customers who had ordered those drugs from Srinivasan, according to the indictment.
Navia and Ruiz allegedly were paid by Srinivasan for their roles as drug suppliers for the organization, officials stated.
This included cryptocurrency, a currency that had been routed through cryptocurrency exchanges, and mobile payment applications, including Apple Cash, CashApp, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle.
The indictment alleges that co-conspirators Srinivasan and Ta maintained a shared electronic document that detailed about 3,800 drug transactions to approximately 1,400 unique customers in all 50 states across the country.
That database documented sales between May 2022 and November 2022 totaling approximately 123,688 fentanyl pills, approximately 20 pounds of methamphetamine, and smaller amounts of fentanyl powder, black tar heroin, and cocaine, according to the indictment.
Defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
If convicted of the criminal charges,
The statutory maximum sentence for the conspiracy charge alleged in the indictment is life in federal prison.
The statutory maximum sentence for the distribution of fentanyl is 20 years in federal prison.
The FBI is investigating this matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg E. Marmaro of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section is prosecuting this case.