A federal grand jury has indicted 25 people in connection with a large-scale fentanyl and cocaine trafficking operation run out of an auto body shop in Martinsburg, West Virginia, the Department of Justice announced earlier this week.
The operation, linked to the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, was dismantled following an extensive investigation.
U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld said the group imported significant amounts of drugs from Puerto Rico via the U.S. Postal Service and from a source connected to the Sinaloa Cartel. Saul Alexi Padilla-Garcia, 34, of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and 17 others were charged after coordination with federal law enforcement agents in Chicago and Northern California.
“This case underscores the scope of the threat posed by Mexican drug cartels to the people of West Virginia,” Ihlenfeld said. “These transnational organizations will operate anywhere there is profit to be made, including here in our region. Fortunately, we have one of the best drug task forces in the country to push back against dangerous groups like this one.”
The arrests are the culmination of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation that began in 2023. Law enforcement arrested 16 individuals and are still searching for Manuel Sanchez Gomez and Olvin Luis-Melendez Robles.
In a separate case, seven people face charges after investigators seized nearly 40,000 fentanyl pills and 12 firearms earlier this year in Berkeley County. The individuals had a stash house on Shepherdstown Road in Martinsburg where they stored their drugs and guns.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Omps-Botteicher is prosecuting the cases. The Eastern Panhandle Drug Task Force led the investigations, with assistance from multiple federal, state, and local agencies.
