SANTA ANA, Calif. – A suspected drug dealer has been charged with several felonies for possessing enough fentanyl to kill 12 million people, nearly four times the population of Orange County. California Highway Patrol officers discovered four kilos of the deadly drug inside the man’s vehicle during a traffic stop in Fullerton and a search of the man’s Fullerton home revealed 20 more kilos of fentanyl, $250,000 in fentanyl pills, and 122 grams of methamphetamine. A lethal dose of fentanyl is as little as 2 milligrams.
Alfonso Gomez-Santana, 60, of Fullerton has been charged with one felony count of sale or transport of a controlled substance and two felony counts of possession of sale with intent to sell. He faces a maximum sentence of 6 years and 8 months in the Orange County Jail if convicted on all counts.
Gomez-Santana was arrested on Wednesday, June 22, 2022 after California Highway Patrol Officers pulled him over near South Lemon Street and Orangethorpe Avenue in the City of Fullerton and discovered four kilos of fentanyl in his vehicle and additional fentanyl and methamphetamine inside his Fullerton home.
“It is unconscionable that someone who has the ability to kill 12 million people is facing just a handful of years in jail,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “Fentanyl is a national epidemic that killed more than 100,000 Americans last year and it’s not going to stop unless we have the tools as prosecutors to hold these drug dealers and drug manufacturers accountable for peddling death. Every parent in America should be petrified that one day they are going to walk into their child’s bedroom and find them dead because their child thought they were experimenting with recreational drugs and instead drug dealers sold them a deadly dose of fentanyl. This is not fear-mongering; this is reality – and if we don’t start strengthening penalties for drug dealers it’s going to be the reality for you or someone you love.”
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has been aggressively been combatting fentanyl through education and prosecution.
In November, Orange County prosecutors began administering a controlled substance warning to drug dealers, manufacturers, and distributors that if their drug-related activities result in someone’s death they could be charged with murder. Last month, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office cross-designated an Orange County prosecutor as a federal prosecutor to prosecute fentanyl cases federally in an effort to maximize sentences for drug dealers.
Deputy District Attorney Patrick Moss of the Narcotics Enforcement Team is prosecuting this case.
