Oakland man gets 8 years for possessing ‘bricks’ of fentanyl

OAKLAND — A local resident who was part of an organization that maintained fentanyl stash houses in the East Bay has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison, court records show.

Edin Rodriguez-Cartagena pleaded guilty to a charge related to distribution of fentanyl and was sentenced on Aug. 15 by U.S. District Judge William Orrick. The sentencing includes a three-year supervised release term but Rodriguez-Cartagena will likely be deported to Honduras after he is released from prison, according to court records.

Orrick’s sentence is a middle ground between the nine-year prison term requested by prosecutors and the six years requested by the defense.

San Francisco police raided Rodriguez-Cartagena’s Oakland home on 38th Avenue on Oct. 13, 2021, and found more than six pounds of fentanyl, as well as a loaded firearm. In July 2022, police raided another Oakland home tied to the organization, this time on MacArthur Boulevard, and found more than 13 pounds of fentanyl and a “press” machine designed to condense the kilograms into a relatively small “bricks,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.

Rodriguez-Cartagena’s lawyer filed a sentencing memo that says he has made significant strides as a person since federal prosecutors charged him in 2022.

“Despite the availability of drugs in the jail, he has not used since his arrest, resulting in his longest stretch of sobriety since he started using drugs at 14 years old,” the defense sentencing memo says. “With the mental clarity that has come with his sobriety, and with the pain that has come from being separated from his children, Mr. Rodriguez-Cartagena has resolved to do better.”