Seven thousand grams of fentanyl—enough to kill tens of thousands—were ripped from the trunk liner of a car driven by a Mexican national on a quiet Gulfport street. Uriel Adolfo Rayo-Dominguez, 19, and passenger Jennifer Castillo, 18, of Charlotte, North Carolina, stood before U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. today and admitted their guilt in one of the boldest fentanyl smuggling attempts to hit the Mississippi coast in recent years.
The bust came on October 11, 2017, when a Gulfport police officer pulled over the pair for careless driving. The moment the officer approached the vehicle, the stench of marijuana hit the air. What started as a routine traffic stop turned into a federal drug case when a search revealed 7,041 grams of pure fentanyl hidden beneath the trunk lining. The deadly payload, capable of annihilating entire communities, was packed and ready for distribution.
Rayo-Dominguez, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the U.S., was behind the wheel. Castillo, an 18-year-old from North Carolina, sat silently in the passenger seat. Both were arrested on the spot and charged with conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl—a charge that doesn’t forgive youth or inexperience. The DEA moved fast, sealing the case with forensic precision and interagency coordination.
U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst didn’t mince words: “Fentanyl is flooding our streets and filling our morgues.” He credited the Gulfport Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration for intercepting a catastrophe. Special Agent in Charge Stephen G. Azzam called the seizure “a body blow to the cartels exploiting American addiction.”
Sentencing is set for May 31, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. before Judge Guirola. Both Rayo-Dominguez and Castillo face a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a $1,000,000 fine. There will be no parole. The feds are coming down hard, sending a message: Mississippi isn’t a corridor for poison.
The case was investigated by the DEA with support from the Gulfport Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Shundral H. Cole. No deals, no excuses—just the cold math of justice closing in.
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- Long Beach Man Gets 46 Months for Fentanyl Trafficking · Mississippi
Key Facts
- State: Mississippi
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
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