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SALT LAKE CITY — A federal court has charged a 31-year-old man from Honduras for possessing more than 124,000 pills of fentanyl.
Gustavo Flores-Hernandez, of Salt Lake City, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute and "reentry of a previously removed alien." The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah said Flores-Hernandez is a "foreign national living in Utah."
According to court documents, the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force executed a search warrant on March 21 at an apartment in Salt Lake City for "an unknown Hispanic male who was distributing controlled substances throughout Salt Lake County." During the search, agents discovered 12,404 grams, or 124,044 pills, of blue pills that tested positive for fentanyl, prosecutors said.
A man, later identified as Flores-Hernandez, entered the apartment while detectives were still inside, and he was arrested. He had approximately $9,000 in cash and 50 grams of fentanyl on him at the time of the arrest, court documents say.
"Flores-Hernandez was interviewed and admitted to detectives that he distributes fentanyl throughout the Salt Lake Valley and that he sends approximately $8,000 per month back to Honduras," court documents state.
The indictment states Flores-Hernandez was deported "on or about July 14, 2011, May 9, 2018, and July 16, 2019," and reentered the country without reapplying for admission.
