Accused fentanyl dealer pleads guilty in Federal Court

A 20-year-old man who was raised along the border could spend between 10 years to life in a federal prison plus face an additional $10 million in fines after he pleaded guilty to a substantial drug charge that landed him behind bars right here in Lavaca County early one morning late last year.

Fernando Flores, 20, entered a guilty plea with the U.S. District Court on Tuesday in Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos’ courtroom in Victoria, admitting in open court that the law enforcement finding of some 10.8 kilograms of the deadly narcotic fentanyl was indeed what took place in the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2024.

Sheriff Deputy Keil was out on patrol early that morning when she noticed a gold-colored sedan come up on her vehicle from behind. The driver then proceeded to tailgate her in the worst way, getting so close at one point, she noted in her report that she couldn’t even see the car’s headlights as they drove along the dark, single-lane roads that become Fairwinds, just inside the western edge of the Hallettsville city limits.

She says she pulled to the side to let the car pass before initiating the traffic stop. Deputy Justin Simpkins arrived just a short while later.

Almost immediately, the two lawmen suspected something afoul. For starters, the vehicle had plates from Mexico, and Flores’ story was flimsy, at best. According to the report, he told officers he was headed to a convention in Houston but could offer almost no details about it.

When asked for his ID, he produced a worn passport card and soon confessed as well that he had no auto insurance of any sort. About that time, too, Deputy Simpkins noticed that Flores had several buds of marijuana, just lying there on the floorboard.

Sighting the weed gave the officers the probable cause they needed to search Flores’ vehicle, but before they began, another tip came to light.

Keil explained Tuesday after the trial.

“Whenever we pull over a vehicle from Mexico, we rarely have any sort of records on that vehicle here in the states, so we usually run the plates by the Border Patrol to try and identify them,” Keil told the newspaper.

Border Patrol had hits on that car almost immediately, Keil said. The Border Patrol informed them of a hidden compartment it held, that up to then, usually contained only cash, several thousand dollars of it, in fact, according to her report.

That day, however, they found something else entirely. Death by the kilo, you could say.

It was Deputy Simpkins who uncovered the haul totaling 10,816 grams of a white powdery substance that two separate lab tests confirmed was the deadly narcotic fentanyl, Keil reported.

That’s nearly 11 kilos of the stuff, more than 24 pounds, or roughly half a feed sack’s worth. Considering just 2 milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dosage to most adults, that’s roughly enough to kill off every man, woman and child in the city of Houston, twice, and still have enough to wipe out every living soul and farm animal in Lavaca County.

To see Flores’ boyish features and short cropped hair that gave him an almost downy appearance, you really wouldn’t have him pegged as someone running around with enough narcotics to wipe out about a third of the Texas population.

Albeit, the red and white jail uniform, colors that had long ago bled to dark and pale shades of pink, probably worked to soften his image some.

But as someone with an American citizenship who spent most of his time in Mexico after he dropped out of high school as a sophomore, it’s not hard to imagine those boyish looks working to shield him a time or two in a pinch.

Given all that time he’s spent on both sides of the border, he was fluent in both English and Spanish, though of the court proceedings Tuesday were handled in Spanish, using an interpreter.

And in accepting his plea, the judge asked on several occasions if indeed he understood the charges against him, questions he answered on multiple occasions with the words, “Si senora.”

Flores will continue his stay at the Victoria County holding cells for now as he awaits his sentence from the judge, which she informed him, based on the quantity found and the “intent to deliver” enhancement tagged on, the recommended sentence typically ranges anywhere from 10 years to life. She noted it was not a sentence she had to enforce, but it was common for the territory.

His lack of a criminal record up to now will go into consideration, the judge assured.

His sentencing date is set for 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24.