United States Drug Enforcement Administration

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sandro Escobedo, 37, of Sacramento, was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Monday for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine, and distribution of fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant and Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Bob Beris announced.

According to court documents, Escobedo was a distributor of fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone M-30 pills and cocaine for an organization that was responsible for importing tens of thousands of fentanyl pills and cocaine from Mexico and distributing them in northern California and elsewhere between May 2019 and January 2021. In October 2019, a teenage victim died of fentanyl poisoning from fentanyl pills that Escobedo distributed.

Fifteen other defendants have pleaded guilty, and 13 have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 19 months to 27 years.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Yuba-Sutter Narcotic and Gang Enforcement Task Force (NET 5), the California Highway Patrol, the Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force (BINTF), the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Team (TRIDENT), the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, the Sacramento Police Department, the Roseville Police Department, the Manteca Police Department, the Yuba City Police Department, and the West Sacramento Police Department. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with Mexican authorities to secure the arrest and extradition of Luis Lopez Zamora to the United States from Mexico. Assistant U.S. Attorney David W. Spencer is prosecuting the case.

This case 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 Sacramento is composed of agents and officers from Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.