Fentanyl Trafficker Who Smuggled Fake Oxycodone from LAX to Dulles in Laundry Product Bottles Sentenced to 10+ Years (2024)

WASHINGTON – Andre Malik Edmond, 23, of Temple Hills, Maryland, was sentenced today to 130 months in prison for participating in a massive fentanyl trafficking conspiracy that shipped hundreds of thousands of fake oxycodone pills from Southern California to destinations throughout the United States, including the District. Edmond, aka “Draco,” was one of 24 co-defendants arrested over the course of 2023 in D.C., Virginia, Maryland, San Diego, and Los Angeles and charged in the conspiracy.

The sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, DEA Special Agent in Charge Jarod Forget of the DEA Washington Division, Inspector in Charge Damon Wood of the US Postal Inspection Service Washington Division (USPIS), Special Agent in Charge Craig B. Kailimai of the Washington Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Chief Pamela A. Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

Edmond pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on February 28 to conspiracy to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl. In addition to the prison term, Judge Kollar-Kotelly ordered Edmond to serve five years of supervised release.

The DEA launched the investigation after a young woman in Washington, D.C., Diamond Lynch, took one pill and died as a result of acute fentanyl intoxication.In addition to investigating and prosecuting the death resulting case,[1] law enforcement followed the evidence and uncovered a vast network of traffickers who transported fentanyl from Mexico to Los Angeles to the District of Columbia. Since then, investigators have seized more than 450,000 fentanyl pills, 1.5 kilograms of fentanyl powder, and 30 firearms.

According to court documents, Edmond and his co-conspirators smuggled the pills on flights to the DMV in luggage and personal carry-on items, or by shipping them through the mail using the U.S. mail or commercial carriers.

In one instance, Edmond informed his Los Angeles-based supplier he wanted to purchase 75,000 fentanyl pills at 39 cents per pill. Edmonds flew to Southern California to complete the deal in January 2023. On January 30, 2023, DEA agents conducted an interdiction of a checked bag at Dulles International Airport that had just arrived on a flight from LAX. Edmond and his traveling companion, a minor, were both passengers on the flight. The bag was checked in the traveling companion’s name and was searched upon arriving at the baggage carousel. Packed in the bag were six Downy Unstopables containers—all of which were filled with fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills, totaling more than 70,000 pills and weighing about 8.2 kilograms. As agents searched the bag, Edmond attempted to flee before law enforcement apprehended him in a parking lot.

Then, before being charged in this case, while Edmond was on pretrial release for state charges in Maryland, he continued to traffic drugs. On June 1, 2023, federal law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Edmond’s home and recovered about 1.6 kilograms of fentanyl-laced fake oxycodone pills. The majority of the pills were found inside a Downy Unstopables container, with the remainder packaged in several baggies.

This investigation is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

Today’s sentencing comes after the following resolutions by other co-defendants in this case.

The prosecutions followed a joint investigation by the DEA Washington Division and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, in partnership with the Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with additional support from the DEA Los Angeles, San Diego, and Riverside Field Offices, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington Field Office, and the Charles County, Maryland Sheriff’s Office. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Central and Southern Districts of California, the Eastern District of Virginia, and the District of Maryland.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew W. Kinskey, Solomon S. Eppel, and Iris McCranie, of the Violence Reduction and Trafficking Offenses (VRTO) Section.

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