United States Drug Enforcement Administration

TALLAHASSEE, FL. – Manuel Alejandro Palomino Amador, 33, of San Diego, Calif., pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. The plea was announced by John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

U.S. Attorney Heekin said: “Thanks to the outstanding investigative work of a multi-state coalition of our state and federal law enforcement partners, this significant drug trafficking network has been dismantled, and this successful prosecution ensures this defendant will face full accountability for flooding our streets with deadly drugs in the Northern District of Florida. The Homeland Security Task Force was established by President Donald J. Trump to eradicate the threats to our citizens’ safety posed by the foreign cartels and transnational criminal organizations pumping violence and deadly drugs into our communities, and my office will continue to aggressively prosecute these cases to keep our streets safe and drug-free.”

Court documents reflect that investigators identified the defendant as a significant supplier of methamphetamine from Southern California to the Northern District of Florida. Upon learning of a methamphetamine shipment bound for North Florida, agents surveilled the transaction in San Diego. Thereafter, law enforcement stopped the buyer as he was returning to his home in Banning, California, searched his vehicle and discovered 35.9 kilograms of methamphetamine. Later that day, law enforcement stopped the defendant as he was driving his own vehicle and discovered 1.9 kilograms of methamphetamine and $51,166 in U.S. currency. Agents also located a key to a storage facility that led to the discovery of an additional 36.4 kilograms of methamphetamine and 4,037 grams of fentanyl.

Amador faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Sentencing is scheduled for June 4, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. at the United States Courthouse in Pensacola before United States District Judge T. Kent Wetherell, II. 

The case involved a joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, and the Escondido Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Walter Narramore.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF comprises agents and officers from multiple agencies with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida.