Arizona man sentenced for shipping fentanyl across country into Northeast Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – 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.

The DOJ said U.S. Postal Inspectors made the package available for pickup as part of an undercover operation on April 14, 2022, which led to Odubajo’s arrest after bringing the package to a residence in Avon.

Police searched the 37-year-old’s car after arresting him and found a hidden compartment containing a loaded handgun and approximately $17,500 in case, the DOJ said.

The DOJ also said police found another 0.5 kilograms, or 1.1 pounds, of the counterfeit pills inside the Avon residence.

DOJ officials said a testimony from a Cuyahoga County Regional Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CCRFS) chemist revealed there were approximately 10,000 pills in the original parcel and an additional 5,000 pills in the residence.

A jury on April 27, 2023 found Odubajo guilty of the following crimes:

• 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
• Felon in Possession of a Firearm

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