Inmate Turned Prison Cell Into Trans-Pacific Drug Command Center: Federal Jury Convicts on Ten Drug Counts
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii announced that Anthony Bravo, an inmate at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano, California, has been convicted by a federal jury on ten drug counts. U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said Bravo, 53, was found guilty on October 16, following a two-week jury trial before Senior U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi, of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, fentanyl and carfentanil, and of nine counts of distributing methamphetamine. Sentencing is set for February 7, 2027, before Judge Kobayashi.
Evidence at trial showed that Bravo, an imprisoned felon with a lengthy history of violent crime and drug trafficking, was the leader and organizer of the drug trafficking organization and had transformed his prison cell into a global command center, orchestrating shipments of hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine and kilograms of deadly fentanyl and carfentanil across the Pacific and into the Hawaiian Islands. Carfentanil is used as a tranquilizing agent for elephants and other large mammals and is approximately 100 times more potent than fentanyl, which can be lethal at the 2-milligram range depending on the route of administration and other factors, the Justice Department said.
Bravo is one of eleven defendants charged in three separate indictments related to the trans-Pacific drug trafficking network. Ten of the defendants pleaded guilty; Bravo was the only one who proceeded to trial. The investigation yielded seizures of more than 150 pounds of methamphetamine, several kilograms of fentanyl and carfentanil, eight firearms, ammunition and over $150,000 in cash. Defendants in his and related indictments have already been sentenced to terms ranging from 36 months to 340 months, including Leonard Gutierrez, who received 340 months, Shawn Pauahi Santana, who received 240 months, and Francis Anthony Abergas, Jr., who received 210 months.
U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said this was a sophisticated and large-scale drug trafficking organization moving extraordinary quantities of dangerous drugs across the globe and into communities in Hawaii, fueling addiction, death, violence and misery, and that prosecutors would pursue those who run such operations with the full force of federal law. Ryan C. Noonan, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Honolulu office, said Bravo's organization pushed staggering amounts of deadly narcotics into the islands and that the conviction shows traffickers will be pursued whether they operate on the streets or from behind prison walls. The case was investigated by the FBI, with assistance from the Honolulu, Kauai and Maui Police Departments, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Margaret C. Nammar and Adrienne Shergill.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Honolulu 的 Prince Kuhio 联邦大楼暨美国法院（资料图），夏威夷区联邦地区法院设于此楼。Tony Webster 摄，CC BY 2.0，经维基共享资源。Photo: The Prince Kuhio Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Honolulu, home of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii (file photo). Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
