Woman Allegedly Caught Hauling Fentanyl Across Desert Appears In Court

INDIO, CA — A 34-year-old Mexican national allegedly caught hauling nearly 100 pounds of fentanyl products in her car along Interstate 10 in Indio made her initial court appearance in federal court Thursday after she was charged with possession of controlled substances with intent to sell.

Adriana Galindo of San Luis Rio Colorado was arrested on I-10 Tuesday.

She appeared before a magistrate at U.S. District Court in downtown Riverside Thursday afternoon. Bond information was not immediately available, nor was there confirmation on her next court date.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Galindo was flagged at a Border Patrol checkpoint as she transited the location in her 2015 Chevrolet Malibu with her juvenile son, whose identity was not disclosed.

When asked by agents about her destination, the defendant said she and her son were headed to Los Angeles for clothes shopping, prosecutors said.

"Galindo consented to a search of the car, and a trained narcotics K- 9 conducted a free-air sniff of the vehicle and alerted fellow law enforcement to the presence of narcotics odor," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement. "An initial search of the vehicle yielded a single blue pill of suspected fentanyl. ... After seizing the vehicle for further search, law enforcement seized approximately 93.3 pounds of fentanyl pills in a non-factory compartment located under the car's front seats."

The Mexican national was taken into custody without incident, and her son was released to the custody of a relative who resides in California.

Galindo could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison if convicted of the felony count.

Preliminary data released earlier this year by the Riverside County Department of Public Health showed there were 388 confirmed fentanyl-related fatalities countywide in 2023, a 23% decline from 2022, when there were 503.

Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the synthetic opioid is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels.

The drug is 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.

Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 45 years old.