Felix C. Becerra Aguilera
HANCOCK COUNTY — A California man who was arrested in September, 2021 while driving along Interstate 70 with almost almost four-and-a-half pounds of fentanyl and over 15 pounds of pills hidden inside his vehicle has officially had his local case dismissed and taken over by federal officials.
Felix C. Becerra-Aguilera, 41, Wasco, California, was arrested last fall and charged with three felony counts, including a Level 2 felony charge of dealing in a narcotic drug, a crime that carries up to 30 years in prison. However, prosecutor Brent Eaton said federal officials became interested in Becerra-Aguilera right from the start and have now officially taken over the case.
“He is from California, and the federal officials want to concentrate on a larger network there,” Eaton said.
County court records indicate all three local charges were dismissed in Hancock County Circuit Court where a pretrial conference was originally scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 10.
At the time of the arrest, the discovery took approximately $908,000 in illegal drugs off the streets, local drug enforcement officials with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department said.
Another reason federal officials got involved in the case is because fentanyl is an extremely dangerous and potent man-made opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, officials said.
It only takes about two milligrams of fentanyl to potentially be lethal, according to DEA.gov. For a perspective of how small that amount is, it takes 5,000 milligrams to make one teaspoon.
At the time of the incident, Becerra-Aguilera told the Indiana State Police trooper who pulled him over that he was heading to a wedding in Philadelphia and had stopped in Las Vegas on the way. The trooper called for backup, and when another officer arrived, they asked for consent to search the vehicle. Becerra-Aguilera agreed.
A trooper was able to use a portable X-ray machine and found drugs inside the seats, a probable cause affidavit said. The troopers could see plastic sticking out underneath the seats and also discovered multiple plastic-wrapped packages containing blue tablets marked “M/30.”
Located in the seat backs of the front seats, troopers found more packages of pills and two bricks commonly referred to as “kilos” containing a powder, later identified as fentanyl, the report stated.
Becerra-Aguilera eventually told the troopers he was just the driver and knew there were drugs in the car, the affidavit said. He told officials he was being paid $8,000 to take the drugs to Philadelphia, but he didn’t know the address yet. He also told officials he was being tracked via GPS, the affidavit said.
Becerra-Aguilera, who was being held in the county jail under a $1 million cash bond, is no longer an inmate. The case was officially dismissed in mid-January, court documents state after the prosecutor’s office filed a motion to dismiss noting another jurisdiction was handling the case.
