EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A federal judge has set a June 3 trial hearing for San Diego women investigators allege recruited minors to smuggle drugs from Mexico in their bodies through the pedestrian lane of a border crossing.
Shannon Pollard and Amy Lennen are facing charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine while armed with a firearm. The charges stem from seizures at a storage facility and a home in San Diego of 46.1 pounds of methamphetamine, 4,493 fentanyl pills, four AR-15 rifles, two AK-47 rifles, a .22-caliber gun, a disabled grenade and multiple stolen passports and drivers’ licenses last November.
The Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating the women after an informant allegedly told agents Lennen offered to sell methamphetamine at $1,300 a pound to a known narcotics distributor, federal court documents show.
According to the informant, Lennen told the distributor a woman named Natalie who supplied her with the drugs “recruits children to body-carry fentanyl” and other drugs through a the port of entry from Mexico. Records show the DEA also contacted the Carlsbad (California) Police Department after agents learned it was already investigating an illicit drug supplier that they believed was Pollard.
Investigators obtained a court order to place a tracking device on a blue Volvo driven by Lennen and identified two addresses – a storage facility in Oceanside and a rental house in San Diego – as possible repositories of drugs.
Agents and local law enforcement raided both locations on Nov. 3 and Nov. 8, respectively, allegedly finding caches of drugs, firearms, ammunition, documents, an ounce of heroin and 26 Xanax pills, court documents show.
A complaint affidavit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California alleges Pollard leased both properties under the alias of Nathalie Flores. Agents arrested Pollard during the search of the rental home for being in violation of her probation on a previous federal charge, records show. Lennen was arrested in February and Pollard re-arrested on the drugs and guns charges.
Both women have pleaded not guilty, waived indictment and are awaiting trial.
Federal and local law enforcement officials in San Diego last year took part in a two-month operation to stem a surge of fentanyl and other hard drugs along the border. Operation Blue Lotus yielded 4,721 pounds of fentanyl and led to the arrest of 200 smugglers, traffickers and dealers, according to the DEA.
“We are an epicenter for fentanyl trafficking into the United States and we know the immense responsibility that we bear to address this crisis,” said Randy Grossman, who was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California at the time and has since retired to private practice. “Every milligram of fentanyl we seize, every smuggler, trafficker and dealer we bring to justice means less fatal doses on the streets of San Diego and beyond.”
