Los Angeles County man gets 15 years in prison for dealing 19,000 counterfeit fentanyl-laced pills

A federal judge sentenced a Los Angeles County man to 15 years and eight months in prison Monday for dealing 19,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl in 2021.

Juan Luis Martinez, a 48-year-old resident of Bell, received the sentence after a jury found him guilty one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, one count of distribution of fentanyl and one count of distribution of methamphetamine on July 24, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. The verdict was reached following a trial that lasted two days.

In October 2021, Martinez delivered more than 19,000 pills laced with fentanyl, packaged into a plastic bag that was stuffed into a bra, to two women in a parking lot. The women then took the thousands of pills and delivered them to three men at another location. Law enforcement officers had followed the women, and they later pulled over the three men and seized the drugs.

According to federal prosecutors, Martinez also sold more than 300 grams of meth to someone two months later, in December 2021.

He has been in federal custody since January of last year.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigated the case along with local law enforcement agencies including the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the police departments of the cities of Hawthorne, Orange and Placentia.