Manager of San Fernando Valley-Based Telephone Order Drug Delivery Service Sentenced to Nearly 20 Years in Federal Prison

          LOS ANGELES – A Sylmar man was sentenced today to 235 months in federal prison for managing “Manny’s Delivery Service,” a Van Nuys-based drug-distribution ring that used a fleet of cars and a staff of drivers to make rapid deliveries – primarily of heroin – to its customers who phoned in orders for narcotics.

          Sigifredo Gurrola Barrientos, 42, was sentenced by United States District Judge Percy Anderson, who said Barrientos was “willing to profit off the misery and at the expense of communities that have to live with the consequences of drug trafficking. Distribution of this poison…carries a very steep price.”

          Barrientos pleaded guilty in April 2018 to one felony count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. He was the lead defendant in a federal grand jury indictment charging him and 13 other people in with various narcotics distribution-related offenses stemming from the delivery operation.

          Between 2013 and December 2017, Barrientos was the manager and overseer of Manny’s Delivery Service. In that role, Barrientos obtained wholesale quantities of heroin and cocaine; managed employees; kept drug sale ledgers; arranged for the storage and transportation of heroin, cocaine and drug proceeds; and obtained, maintained and outfitted a fleet of drug delivery vehicles. The ring also sold larger quantities to street-level heroin dealers as part of its sophisticated, high-volume narcotics business. Delivery vehicles had hidden compartments to conceal drugs and the movement of bulk cash collected from narcotics transactions.

          Members of the drug ring obtained pound quantities of heroin and moved hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, according to wiretapped conversations. Bulk narcotics were stored in a “stash house,” and smaller quantities of drugs were packaged and dispatched to customers from a facility maintained by the ring in Van Nuys. The outfit frequently supplied drugs to customers who were directed to meet delivery drivers at locations across the San Fernando Valley.

          For example, in November 2014, Barrientos coordinated the distribution of nearly one pound of heroin to a Manny’s customer, but law enforcement subsequently seized it.

          When law enforcement broke up the Manny’s ring in December 2017, the outfit possessed at a Van Nuys stash house approximately 11.5 pounds of heroin and 1.1 pounds of cocaine meant for distribution. Barrientos and a co-defendant also possessed $434,327 in Manny’s drug proceeds at the stash house.

          Barrientos has been in custody since his arrest in this case in December 2017. He is the last of the 14 defendants charged in the indictment to be sentenced. Other defendants in this case received sentences of up to 97 months in federal prison.

          Three drug dealers associated with this conspiracy were charged in separate indictments with distribution or possession with intent to distribute heroin. All three of those defendants have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison terms of up to 63 months.

          The investigation into Manny’s Delivery Service was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Ventura County Narcotics Task Force. The Los Angeles Police Department and the Glendale Police Department provided substantial assistance during the investigation, which was part of the Justice Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).

          This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys A. Carley Palmer and Christopher C. Kendall of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section.