A man from the Dominican Republic has been sentenced to 15 years in U.S. District Court for trafficking heroin and fentanyl in Virginia. According to reports, he had been deported six times prior to this incident.
On Thursday, Feb. 27, the court sentenced Gregorio Gustavo DeJesus Santos to 15 years and 8 months in prison. Santos was found guilty of possessing and intending to distribute heroin and fentanyl, as well as reentering the United States with a prior felony conviction.
On January 18, 2024, DeJesus Santos was pulled over by a state trooper on Interstate 85 in Mecklenburg County, as stated in a release from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The trooper conducted a traffic stop and during the process, a narcotics canine detected the presence of narcotics in Santos’ car.
During the search, state police thoroughly inspected DeJesus Santos’ vehicle and discovered a concealed compartment spanning from the front passenger seat to the rear passenger seat. However, the compartment was found to be empty, leading to his subsequent release, as reported by the Department of Justice.
According to the DOJ release, DeJesus Santos then made a trip to North Carolina before quickly returning to Virginia. Upon his arrival, law enforcement pulled him over for a traffic violation, and a drug-sniffing dog detected the presence of narcotics. Subsequently, a search of his vehicle led to the discovery of two packages concealed in a hidden compartment.
The police reported that the first package contained 200 grams of fentanyl, whereas the second package consisted of a combination of fentanyl and heroin, weighing 293 grams.
In his guilty plea, DeJesus Santos admitted to acquiring and distributing a minimum of three extra kilograms of fentanyl, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) states that DeJesus Santos has been deported six times in the past, with the first deportation occurring in 1996. The most recent deportation took place on Oct. 18, 2022, after he was convicted of a felony drug charge in the Southern District of New York and subsequently released from prison.