A Derby Police Department photo showing Fentanyl seized during a traffic stop Dec. 21, 2016.
Informants, food delivery receipts, and wire transfer records helped federal agents tie a California man to a $1.5 million drug shipment seized in Derby last year, according to court documents made public Thursday.
Federal prosecutors have now lodged drug trafficking charges against the man, who they say arranged the cross-country shipment of 55 pounds of Fentanyl seized during a traffic stop on Route 34 in Derby Dec. 21, 2016.
The alleged trafficker, 26-year-old Omar Villarreal, of La Puente, California, faces charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, a controlled substance, aiding and abetting the distribution of fentanyl, and traveling in interstate commerce to promote an unlawful activity.
Villarreal has been detained since his arrest in the case May 15. If convicted on all the charges he would face up to 45 years behind bars.
The Valley Indy left a message for Villarreal’s lawyer Thursday.
The seizure was among the largest Fentanyl busts recorded in the U.S., according to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. Vice reported it was enough Fentanyl to kill everyone in Connecticut — twice.
Fentanyl is a dangerously potent synthetic opioid, especially when mixed with heroin.
The drug is frequently blamed for overdoses, as was the case with at least one fatal overdose in Derby last year.
An affidavit from DEA Special Agent John Muglia made public Thursday offers some details about how law enforcement became involved in the case.
According to the affidavit, law enforcement officers conducted surveillance at a Waterbury address used by Villarreal in fall 2016.
A DEA source told agents that Villarreal had traveled to Connecticut “to oversee and facilitate a large drug shipment,” the affidavit says.
Officers tied Villarreal to the address using another confidential source as well as documentation from Waterbury food delivery businesses and wire transfers Villarreal received at a local supermarket, the affidavit says.
On Dec. 20, weeks after Villarreal had left Connecticut, he allegedly contacted one of the DEA sources to tell him a large shipment of narcotics would be arriving in Orange Dec. 21, 2016.
That morning, a truck driver, Erick Crespo-Escalante, contacted the source and arranged to meet at an address in Orange.
The two met and, under the direction of the DEA, the source told Crespo-Escalante to follow him somewhere else to off-load the drug shipment.
While en route to the new location, Derby police stopped the tractor-trailer for an alleged lane change violation.
During the traffic stop, Crespo-Escalante “appeared abnormally nervous and at times appeared confused as to where he was going and from where he was coming,” according to the affidavit.
Officers noticed a large cardboard box in the cab of the truck. They asked Escalante what was in it.
“S**t,” he allegedly replied.
Police called in a police dog from Shelton to sniff around the truck.
The animal alerted officers that there were drugs in the box.
Police then removed the box from the truck and opened it up. Inside, they found 25 vacuum-sealed bricks of Fentanyl.
Crespo-Escalante pleaded guilty in the case in April and awaits sentencing.
