Oakland: Teen fentanyl dealer who unwittingly led DEA to his home gets 5 years in prison

OAKLAND — A local fentanyl dealer who led the Drug Enforcement Administration right to his doorstep when he was only 19 years old has been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty, court records show.

Alejandro Lopez, 20, was sentenced earlier this month to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl, court records show. After his release from prison he will serve a four-year supervised release term, according to the sentencing order.

Lopez was arrested last year as part of an undercover investigation by the DEA, which involved Lopez selling drugs to an undercover agent by the ounce, according to court records. On multiple occasions he arrange to sell several ounces of both drugs to an undercover agent outside of a home on the 9800 block of Holly Street, where Lopez was living.

When the DEA raided the home, they found not just stashes of drugs but several guns, including a loaded revolver and two firearms that were covered in duct tape, according to a prosecution sentencing memo. Other people were staying at the home and Lopez’s lawyer says that there was no evidence the guns belonged to Lopez, such as his fingerprints or DNA.

Lopez’s lawyer said that he grew up in Honduras in a small village that lacked electricity or running water, became addicted to cocaine at the age of 14 — after his grandfather’s death — and came to America with hopes of a bright future that were quickly quashed.

“Like so many others, he then fled the poverty and instability of his country for the possibility of economic stability here. That dream soured within months of his arrival when purported friends convinced him he was better off selling drugs than trying to find honest work,” the defense lawyer, Matthew Dirkes, said in court filings. “His stint in the drug trade was short-lived.”