‘Drug Pipeline’ used furniture to ship a ton of narcotics across NC, feds say
A “drug pipeline” ingeniously used furniture to ship more than a ton of narcotics across eastern North Carolina, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
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The operation was based out of Fayetteville, where a team dismantled the furniture to retrieve packages of fentanyl, meth, and cocaine, federal officials said in a Sept. 8 news release.
Alexander Sandoval was the man in charge, and he also led to the operation’s downfall, by unintentionally selling meth to federal investigators, prosecutors say.
Sandoval, 29, has been sentenced to 35 years in federal prison, after pleading guilty to conspiracy, distribution of meth, and possession of a firearm while drug‑trafficking, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle called the operation “depraved.”
“This (defendant) pumped staggering amounts of fentanyl, meth, and cocaine into our communities, hiding his poison in furniture and moving it across Eastern North Carolina,” Boyle said. “Even up to the bitter end, armed with a revolver, fleeing at more than 100 miles an hour, and running from officers on foot, he refused to stop.”
Investigators identified Sandoval as a suspected drug trafficker in 2022, and determined furniture was being used to ship the product, officials said.
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The operation moved “79 pounds of fentanyl, 1,817 pounds of meth, and 174 pounds of cocaine,” federal prosecutors said.
Even after being arrested, Sandoval continued “shamelessly making multiple phone calls from jail to organize his drug distribution upon his release,” federal officials said.
“All of those calls were recorded, and law enforcement followed all his plans,” officials said.
The case was prosecuted as part of Operation Couch Potato, a component of the Homeland Security Task Force created to dismantle “cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking networks,” officials said.
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Fayetteville is about a 65-mile drive southwest from downtown Raleigh.
