LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A major drug trafficking operation that funneled meth, cocaine and fentanyl from California to Louisville through the U.S. Postal Service was dismantled by federal authorities.
According to an undercover by the Internal Revenue Service, following the money led investigators to Teyrin Johnson, a California man who has now been sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison for meth trafficking and money laundering.
"We know that Mexican cartels are huge," said Kyle Brice, assistant special agent in charge for the Cincinnati Field Office of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, which includes Louisville. "So part of what we do is follow that money trying to make its way back to those organizations."
Johnson was identified as a courier moving drugs from California to Kentucky and funneling cash back west. Surveillance footage captured him mailing a package through the U.S. Postal Service, which investigators later confirmed contained drugs. Investigators said his fingerprints on the package linked him directly to the illegal operation.
"The forensics in this case allowed us to put criminal charges related to drug conspiracy and money laundering on Mr. Johnson," an undercover IRS agent. "We also followed his activities to California and potentially across borders."
Brice said investigators used various techniques, including image and audio enhancement as well as polygraph analysis, to build their case.
Johnson was ultimately arrested at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, where authorities found more than $80,000 in cash hidden inside bed sheets in his checked luggage.
"Without Mr. Johnson's efforts, drugs wouldn't have gotten into our community and the money wouldn't have gotten out," the undercover agent said. "So he's really the direct link between Kentucky and, in this case, California."
The investigation also led federal agents to Charles Commodore, a Louisville man tied to the pipeline. U.S. Postal inspectors and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration tracked a package containing several pounds of meth delivered to a Louisville address. When authorities raided Commodore's home in 2021, they found fentanyl pills and stacks of cash hidden in boxes, drawers and bags.
Commodore was already known to law enforcement. In 2017, he was arrested in east Louisville with another man after officers found 50 pounds of marijuana inside their suitcases.
While federal agents continue to crack down on the drug trade, they acknowledge the challenges posed by international cartels.
"The highest individuals are all elsewhere," Brice said. "We can take local people off the street. We can take couriers. We can take individuals who are middlemen. But the highest levels of these organizations are not in the area, not even in the country."
A major drug trafficking operation that funneled meth, cocaine, and fentanyl from California to Louisville through the U.S. Postal Service was dismantled by federal authorities.
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