California Man Indicted for Possessing Heroin to Distribute

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Chowchilla, Calif., man was indicted by a federal grand jury today after law enforcement officers found a large amount of heroin in his backpack when he arrived at a local bus station.

Sergio Gonzalez-Bedolla, 20, was charged with possessing heroin with the intent to distribute in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo. Today’s indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed against Gonzalez-Bedolla on Oct. 23, 2018.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, a police service canine detected the odor of drugs while checking on a bus that originated in Los Angeles, Calif., after it arrived at a local station. Gonzalez-Bedolla was sitting in the area of the bus where the canine had alerted to the presence of drugs. A Kansas City, Mo., police detective contacted Gonzalez-Bedolla, whom the affidavit says appeared to be extremely nervous, when he got off the bus.

The detective searched Gonzalez-Bedolla’s backpack and found four bundles of heroin that weighed a total of 2.8 kilograms.

The charge contained in this indictment 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. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.