FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: David Chapman
Phone: (904) 255-3004
Cell: (904) 524-6626
ChapmanD@coj.net
March 20, 2024
DUVAL COUNTY JURY FINDS ECHEVARRIA GUILTY OF TRAFFICKING FENTANYL
State Attorney Melissa Nelson announces that a Duval County jury found Enrique Echevarria guilty of Trafficking in Fentanyl. With the verdict, Echevarria faces up to 30 years in Florida State Prison. The Honorable Anthony Salem will sentence Echevarria at a later date.
In December 2021, investigators with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office opened a narcotics investigation after a citizen received a suspicious package shipped through the U.S. Postal Service with approximately 1,500 pills inside. The pills were seized and sent to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Southeast Laboratory for testing where they were determined to be fentanyl. A review of the Postal Service documents and an investigation into other suspicious packages from Arizona and California found that Echevarria was the intended recipient of the pills. In August 2022, investigators were able to intercept a package Echevarria shipped to Arizona and found a kilogram of a white substance hidden inside a guitar amplifier. The substance was tested in the DEA Southeast Laboratory, and the results came back positive for fentanyl on Oct. 19, 2022.
The case was investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and was prosecuted by Assistant State Attorneys Rich Giglio and Joel Cooper.