Arkansas Man Charged with Fentanyl Trafficking

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Fort Smith, Arkansas, man was charged in federal court today with fentanyl trafficking after law enforcement officers found seven pounds of fentanyl in his backpack when he arrived at a Kansas City, Missouri, bus station.

Daniel Bonilla, 26, was charged with possessing fentanyl with the intent to distribute in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo.

According to an affidavit filed in support of today’s federal criminal complaint, a police service dog indicated the presence of illegal drugs in the luggage stored underneath a bus at a local bus station on Wednesday, Dec. 16. When Bonilla picked up the luggage, a Kansas City police detective contacted him for questioning. Bonilla was acting suspiciously, the affidavit says, and a police service dog indicated the presence of illegal drugs in a backpack he was carrying. When a detective searched the backpack, he found three packages that contained a total of seven pounds of fentanyl.

The charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Q. McCarther and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen Brackett. It was investigated by the Kansas City Interdiction Task Force.