U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri issued the following announcement on Jan. 14.
A Montclair, California, man pleaded guilty in federal court today to drug trafficking after transporting more than four pounds of heroin and approximately five pounds of fentanyl aboard a bus en route to New York City.
Daniel O. Villanueva, 20, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to possessing fentanyl with the intent to distribute. Villanueva has been in federal custody without bond since his arrest on Oct. 3, 2019.
According to court documents, detectives with the MoWIN (Missouri Western Interdiction and Narcotics) Task Force contacted Villanueva at a local bus station when he disembarked from a bus originating from Los Angeles, California, en route to New York City. Villanueva gave detectives permission to search his backpack in the overhead bin in the passenger compartment of the bus. No contraband was found in the backpack.
Near Villanueva’s backpack was a green backpack, which Villanueva claimed did not belong to him. Detectives removed the green backpack and a police service canine alerted to the presence of controlled substances inside the backpack. When passengers boarded the bus, detectives asked whether the backpack belonged to any of them. No one claimed the backpack, so detectives removed it from the bus and searched it. They found four bundles, concealed within men’s clothing, which contained a total 2.022 kilograms (approximately 4.4 pounds) of heroin and 2.27 kilograms (approximately five pounds) of fentanyl.
Villanueva, who had been escorted off the bus, told detectives the green backpack was his. Villanueva told detectives he was to be paid $5,000 to deliver the heroin and fentanyl to New York City.
Under federal statutes, Villanueva is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Q. McCarther. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up