Arrested near Patterson with 2,000 fentanyl-laced pills, Richmond man faces federal charges
A Richmond man arrested by the California Highway Patrol near Patterson in January was indicted Thursday on charges of distributing and possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl, according the the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Leobardo Gerardo Anaya, 28, was pulled over for speeding on Interstate 5 near Sperry Road on Jan. 13, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. Eastern District Court of California last week and unsealed Thursday.
He and his passenger told a CHP officer they had dropped off a friend in Los Angeles and were on their way home. Anaya couldn’t say where they’d dropped off the friend.
A second officer who’d arrived to assist on the traffic stop went to talk to the passenger and noticed her hands were shaking as she handed him her license, according to the complaint.
The officer who made the traffic stop, Matthew Fowles, got his K9 Pakito out of his patrol vehicle and walked him around Anaya’s vehicle. Pakito alerted to the left rear taillight of the vehicle.
Guns, drugs found at stop in Patterson
Fowles conducted a probable cause search of the vehicle. He found a fully loaded black Glock 27 Gen 4, semiautomatic pistol under the driver’s seat and approximately 2,000 pills stamped M30 in the trunk, according to the complaint.
Testing at a lab confirmed Fowles’ suspicion the pills were counterfeit oxycodone hydrochloride laced with fentanyl.
Even before the Jan. 13 traffic stop in Stanislaus County, the Federal Bureau of Investigations has been investigating Anaya for suspected gun and drug sales.
On Aug. 26, a confidential informant with the FBI purchased two guns and 100 fentanyl-laced pills for $6,800 in the parking lot of a shopping center in Vallejo, according to the complaint.
Anaya is suspected of using Snapchat to sell the guns and drugs.
If convicted of possession with intent to distribute over 40 grams of fentanyl, Anaya faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 40 years in prison and a fine of up to $5 million.
If convicted of distribution of fentanyl, Anaya faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.
Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 4:02 PM.
