United States Drug Enforcement Administration

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A San Diego, California, man has been indicted by a federal grand jury after smuggling nearly eight pounds of fentanyl aboard a bus traveling through Kansas City, Missouri.

Jonatan Gutierrez, 28, was charged with possessing fentanyl with the intent to distribute, in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, on Tuesday, Oct. 26. The indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed against Gutierrez on Oct. 7, 2021.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, a drug-sniffing police dog alerted to the presence of drugs in the checked baggage area of a bus that arrived at a Kansas City station from California on Oct. 7, 2021. After a Kansas City police detective contacted Gutierrez, the drug-sniffing police dog alerted to Gutierrez’s roller bag.

Officers searched Gutierrez’s roller bag and found three bundles wrapped in cellophane and secured in the bottom, zippered portion of the roller bag. The bundles contained a total of 3,487 grams (approximately 7.6 pounds) of fentanyl and 18 pills. Officers also found a plastic prescription bottle in the roller bag that contained a personal use amount of marijuana and 10 pills.

The charge contained in this indictment is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Kansas City Police Department and the Missouri Western Interdiction Task Force (MoWIN).