EVANSVILLE — A federal judge has sentenced a Mexican national to a stint in federal prison for trafficking more than 60,000 fentanyl pills from Arizona to Evansville, where he delivered the drugs to an undercover officer.
During a June 11 hearing, Judge Richard L. Young, of the Southern District of Indiana, sentenced Javier Moreno-Garibaldi, 38, to serve five-and-a-half years in prison followed by two years supervised release, court records show.
Moreno-Garibaldi pleaded guilty March 3 to one count of distributing more than 400 grams of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has in recent years become the primary culprit for fatal overdoses in Evansville and across the country.
In a criminal complaint, federal prosecutors said Moreno-Garibaldi transported more than 60,000 counterfeit opioid painkillers containing fentanyl from Phoenix, Arizona, to Evansville in September 2023. Unbeknownst to Moreno-Garibaldi, the customer who was set to pay $120,000 for the drugs was an undercover law enforcement officer.
Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl can cause a fatal overdose in non-opioid users, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meaning the pills Moreno-Garibaldi transported to Evansville contained enough fentanyl to potentially kill thousands of people.
The tablets were designed to look like 30 milligram prescription oxycodone tablets, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration found.
Following Moreno-Garibaldi’s arrest, he told investigators a man he knew as “Gordo” offered to pay him $14,000 to transport a “package” to Evansville, prosecutors wrote.
Moreno-Garibaldi reportedly told detectives that Gordo, a resident of Mexicali, Mexico, instructed him to drive from California to Phoenix, where he picked up a dog kennel box containing the fentanyl pills before continuing on to Evansville.
In a statement announcing Moreno-Garibaldi’s sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana listed him as an “illegal immigrant,” but the statement did not elaborate on whether he would be deported following the completion of his sentence.
The statement also linked the case to Operation Take Back America, a Department of Justice program spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s administration that has since Jan. 20 tasked federal law enforcement with “repelling the invasion of illegal immigration.”
But Moreno-Garibaldi’s case traces back to May 2023 when Tri-State law enforcement agencies and the DEA launched an investigation into a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization that had flooded the region with methamphetamine and fentanyl, court documents show.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to questions about Moreno-Garibaldi’s immigration status, whether he would deported upon the completion of his sentence or how his case was part of Operation Take Back America.
John E. Childress, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in a statement Tuesday that fentanyl “devastates our families, friends and communities.”
“These dangerous drugs are pouring into our neighborhoods in staggering amounts, driven by Mexican cartels and enabled by traffickers and dealers across the country,” Childress said. “Our office remains committed to working alongside the DEA, Evansville Police Department, Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force and Owensboro Police Department to aggressively investigate and prosecute those involved in these deadly networks.”
Houston Harwood can be contacted at houston.harwood@courierpress.com.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Mexican national sentenced for trafficking 60,000+ fentanyl pills to Evansville
Reporting by Houston Harwood and Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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