John Marsh 
Updated July 17th, 2019
A federal judge on Monday sentenced a man who supplied a deadly San Antonio-based pill mill with fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine to nearly 21 years without parole.
The drugs provided by Fernando “Kalifa” Padilla Becerra, 34, were used to lace counterfeit prescription pills that the group made in a lab located in a San Antonio house and later, a suburban Houston home, according to court records.
The pills were then distributed on the darknet to buyers around the country.
Becerra, who was born in San Antonio but now lives in California, was just one of several suppliers, but under federal law, he was held accountable for the entire estimated output of the lab over two years, more than 800,000 pills. The pills were made using commercial presses obtained from China.
The case grew out of an influx of hydroponic marijuana and prescription medication distributed at the University of Texas at San Antonio campus and student housing, and mushroomed into one of several investigations of illegal fentanyl distribution on the darknet — the black market on the internet, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Pills linked to the San Antonio ring eventually killed a U.S. Marine in North Carolina, who died of a fentanyl overdose, according to court records and prosecutors.
In court Monday, Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra detailed the huge number of counterfeit medication sold by the ring from 2015 to 2017: 359,553 oxycodone pills with fentanyl, 342,551 pills of Adderall with meth, 145,395 pills of Xanax laced with cocaine.
“I’d like apologize to the court and my family,” Becerra told the judge. “I take responsibility and want to see if I can get a second chance. We all make mistakes.”
“That’s quite a mistake,” the judge responded, noting the huge number of pills that were sold. “That’s a big mistake over quite a period of time. I mean, we’re not talking about a few joints.”
Becerra and his lawyer, Guillermo Lara Jr., asked for leniency, seeking 200 months. They also asked for a furlough for Becerra to see his son, who turns 3 years old this week.
The feds wanted 293 months, the highest under recommended sentencing guidelines.
The judge opted to split the difference and gave him 250 months. He also denied the furlough. However, as Ezra has done for other defendants, the judge allowed Becerra to hug his son and family goodbye in the courtroom under the watchful eye of federal marshals.
“This defendant was a long-time supplier of large amounts of narcotics that were being distributed … using Bitcoin and the internet. This came about as discovery of an increased amount of narcotics on the University of Texas (at San Antonio),” Assistant U.S. Attorney Bettina Richardson told the judge.
“He said he wants to be there for his son, but every parent who sends their child to college wants to be there for their son, too,” Richardson said. “This organization that Becerra was providing narcotics for was responsible for the death of at least one individual.”
Court records said the Marine’s supplier bought 25 oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl from the ring’s site on the darknet March 25, 2017, and provided some to the serviceman, whose name has not been made public.
The court documents also said two people in North Dakota overdosed on fentanyl-laced pills bought from the San Antonio ring’s site, but they survived after being treated by medical staff.
Becerra pleaded guilty last year to two charges: conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl and more than 500 grams of meth; and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine.
The leader of the ring, Alaa Mohammed Allawi, 30, pleaded guilty June 20 to numerous drug- and gun-related charges and is facing a sentence of 30 years in prison.
Allawi was a former interpreter in Iraq for U.S. military forces who had been granted legal residency in the United States for his service.
Besides Becerra and Allawi, six others were charged in the case and all have agreed to plead guilty. Jason Ray Saucedo, 23, is expected to be sentenced later this week on charges of possession with intent to distribute 5 grams or more of methamphetamine and carrying or possessing firearms during a drug-trafficking crime.
