United States Drug Enforcement Administration

(OCALA, Fla.) - Tirso Hernandez-(35, Ocala) was sentenced today to 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl. A federal jury found him guilty on February 21, 2018. Also, co-conspirator Simon Rodriguez-(48, Ocala) was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams of more of methamphetamine. He pleaded guilty on February 7, 2018.

According to court documents, on May 24, 2017, in a parking lot in Ocala, Rodriguez-Flores sold approximately 4 ounces of crystal methamphetamine to a cooperating witness. On June 2, 2017, at the same location, Rodriguez-Flores delivered 2 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine to the same individual and was arrested by Drug Enforcement Administration agents. At the time of the incident, Hernandez-Astudillo was a passenger in Rodriguez-Flores’s car.

Immediately after the arrest, a search warrant was executed at the residence Hernandez-Astudillo shared with his cousin and co-defendant, Gilberto Astudillo-(34, Ocala), during which agents recovered items used in the manufacture and packaging of crystal methamphetamine. From another trailer across the street, where Hernandez-Astudillo had been earlier in the day, agents recovered a suspicious package containing approximately 1 kilogram of an undetermined powdery substance. Subsequent analysis of the substance revealed that it contained fentanyl. The sentencing hearing for Astudillo-Carbajal has not yet been set.

This investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration Gainesville Resident Office with the assistance of the Gainesville Police (PD), the Alachua County Sheriff’s (SO), the Ocala PD, the Levy County SO, and the Union County SO, the Marion County Unified Drug Enforcement Strike Team.  The case is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
More information about this case can be found at http://www.flmd.uscourts.gov or https://ecf.flmd.uscourts.gov