CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – 8/5/23 – A judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio this week sentenced a 37-year-old Arizona man after being found guilty of shipping fentanyl from across the country into Northeast Ohio.
A U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) spokesperson said the judge sentenced Solomon Odubajo, of Tempe, Arizona, to 248 months, or approximately 20.66 years, in prison after being found guilty of all six charges in his indictment related to the incident.
According to a USDOJ press release, Odubajo mailed a package with the fentanyl, shaped as counterfeit pills, from Phoenix to an address in Garfield Heights in April 2022.
U.S. Postal Inspectors after obtaining a search warrant for the package found approximately one kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of those counterfeit pills hidden inside of a vacuum cleaner.
Original DOJ Charge
CLEVELAND – 12/1/22 – An Arizona man was charged on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022, in a six-count superseding indictment related to his role in a drug trafficking conspiracy that sought to distribute and possess over 1 kilogram of fentanyl tablets designed to look like oxycodone pills in the Northern Ohio area.
Solomon Odubajo, 37, of Tempe, Arizona, was officially charged in the superseding indictment with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, interstate travel in aid of racketeering, attempted possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Odubajo’s co-conspirator in the drug trafficking scheme, Laysalle Scales, 24, of Cleveland, Ohio, previously pleaded guilty in July 2022 to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and was sentenced to 70 months in prison.
According to court documents, in April 2022, Postal Inspectors with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) obtained a search warrant for a parcel suspected of containing drugs that had been mailed from Arizona to a residence in Garfield Heights, Ohio. Investigators searched the package and found it to contain over 1 kilogram of fentanyl tablets designed to look like oxycodone pills.
Authorities launched an investigation into the origins of the parcel and determined that Odubajo had mailed it from Arizona and then traveled to Ohio to retrieve it. During his arrest, Odubajo was found to be in possession of a firearm, and evidence confirmed that Odubajo’s DNA was also present on the firearm. Odubajo is prohibited from possessing a firearm due to a previous conviction for drug trafficking in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
The case against Odubajo is scheduled to be tried before a federal jury on March 20, 2023.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after a review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal records, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases, it will be less than the maximum.
The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney James P. Lewis.
