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Gabriel Rivera-Otero, 42, also known as "Carlos Vasquez" and "Gustavo," was sentenced to about 24-and-a-half years in prison and 10 years of supervised release, according to a Department of Justice news release on Monday, Oct. 28.
A Dominican Republic man, Angel Reyes-Valdez, 47, also known as "Abel Anton Alberto Nunez," was sentenced with Rivera-Otero, the news release states. Reyes-Valdez was sentenced to 25 years in prison and five years of supervised release.
Both men were found guilty of possession with the intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl and maintaining a drug-involved premises by a jury during a four-day trial in July, according to the news release.
Reyes-Valdez was also convicted of illegal re-entry after deportation and will be deported after serving his sentence, the news release states.
Rivera-Otero and Reyes-Valdez were caught transferring six kilograms of fentanyl between them in a parking lot in Philadelphia on Oct. 28, 2020, according to the news release.
Investigators with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Philadelphia Police Department, and Department of Homeland Security recovered the fentanyl from a diaper box in the passenger seat of Rivera-Otero's vehicle, the news release states.
On the same day, investigators searched two separate Philadelphia residences where the two men stored and packaged large quantities of drugs, according to the news release. A total of 730 kilograms of fentanyl was found at both houses along with 110,000 fentanyl pills, drug manufacturing and packaging equipment, a loaded firearm, and more than $90,000 in cash.
Rivera-Otero and Reyes-Valdez both have prior felony drug convictions, the news release states. Reyes-Valdez had been previously deported from the U.S. to the Dominican Republic three times between 2007 and 2014.
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