LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Lancaster man is expected to be sentenced Monday for his role in a drug ring that sold cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and crack hidden in stuffed animals on darknet marketplaces.
Adan Sepulveda, 31, pleaded guilty in September in downtown Los Angeles to one federal count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
He and four other Lancaster residents were charged in 2019 with membership in the "Drugpharmacist" drug trafficking organization, named for the moniker it used on the darknet marketplaces Wall Street Market and Dream.
The defendants hid the drugs inside stuffed animals and mailed them at post offices throughout Los Angeles, according to Sepulveda's plea agreement filed in Los Angeles federal court.
One shipment of heroin in August 2018 resulted in the fatal overdose of a victim in Knoxville, Tennessee, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
An investigation into the organization confirmed that the ring used stash houses in the San Fernando Valley to package drugs for delivery, prosecutors said.
Sepulveda faces between five and 40 years behind bars, prosecutors noted.
A status conference is scheduled Thursday for Jerrell Eugene Anderson, 33, the lead defendant in the case.