Fentanyl and a grenade launcher: Mexican national drug, gun dealer in Vancouver gets 10 years

A 49-year-old Mexican national was sentenced to 10 years in prison for drug and gun trafficking in Vancouver, Washington.

Juan Onofre Flores Carrillo was arrested in March 2024 after a law enforcement raid of his stash house in Vancouver, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. Flores Carrillo and a co-defendant had more than seven pounds of fentanyl, 43 pounds of methamphetamine, and an assault rifle with a grenade launcher.

Identified as a “significant pill dealer” in the region, law enforcement said it worked with confidential informants for more than a year making numerous drug buys from Flores Carrillo, who goes by the nickname “El Cholo.” According to court documents, he twice sold an informant high-powered firearms, one of which was a so-called “ghost gun” without a serial number.

An AR-15 type rifle associated with the case of a Mexican national being sentenced to prison for drug and gun trafficking in Vancouver, Washington. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington)

U.S. Attorney says Flores Carrillo sold drugs, guns to informant

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Flores Carrillo agreed to sell an informant 10,000 fentanyl pills. After turning over the drugs, he was arrested, according to court documents.

The bag containing 10,000 fentanyl pills seized by agents. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington)

Flores Carrillo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and use of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

“Firearms are a tool of the drug trade, and the danger of drug trafficking comes not only from the effect of drugs on users but from the violence associated with drug trafficking. The firearms that Flores Carrillo possessed and sold to … a person he believed to be a drug trafficker, are highly dangerous and not intended to be in the hands of drug users or drug traffickers,” prosecutors wrote to the court.

Co-defendant Jesus Daniel Valenzuela Ayala, 24, was the only resident of the stash house and is also a Mexican national, according to KATU. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.

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