Riverside County Man Who Trafficked Pound Quantities of Fentanyl and Cocaine Sentenced to 19 Years in Prison

LOS ANGELES – A Hemet man was sentenced today to 228 months in federal prison for knowingly mailing pound quantities of fentanyl and marijuana, possessing more than four pounds of fentanyl and more than 35 pounds of cocaine in his house and for illegally possessing firearms, including one so-called “ghost” machinegun lacking a serial number.

Ignacio Alcala, 38, was sentenced by United States District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha.

Alcala pleaded guilty in November 2023 to one count of distributing fentanyl, two counts of possessing with the intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine, and one count of possessing firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes.

In August 2022, Alcala knowingly mailed from a post office in Riverside to Rochester, New York, a parcel that contained approximately 1 kilogram of fentanyl. Later that month, he knowingly mailed another parcel from another post office in Riverside to New Orleans that contained approximately 2.5 kilograms of marijuana.

Law enforcement arrested Alcala at his residence in December 2022.

Inside Alcala’s residence, law enforcement seized a bag containing 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of fentanyl, along with two firearms, a .357 revolver reported stolen in 2019, and a Glock-style pistol that did not bear a legitimate serial number – commonly known as a “ghost gun” – beside a stack of children’s toys. The ghost gun had an empty large capacity magazine inserted and a Glock switch affixed to the striker plate, rendering the firearm a fully automatic machinegun pistol. Officers also found more than 16 kilograms of cocaine inside an air duct and almost half a kilogram of cocaine inside a kitchen cabinet.

“This is not a one-time incident, rather this is evidence of a serial and dangerous drug trafficker who poses a significant danger to society,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “[Alcala] has contributed to the nationwide devastation by trafficking in fentanyl and using the United States Postal Service to move bulk quantities of fentanyl from Southern California to the rest of the nation.”

The United States Postal Inspection Service, in conjunction with the Riverside County Gang Impact Team, investigated this matter. The Gang Impact Team is supervised by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation and staffed by agents from the DA’s Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, United States Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, and detectives and resources from the Beaumont, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Hemet, Murrieta, and Riverside Police Departments.

Assistant United States Attorney Mitchell M. Suliman of the Riverside Branch Office prosecuted this case.