EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A federal judge has set a June 3 trial hearing for San Diego women investigators allege recruited minors to smuggle drugs from Mexico in their bodies through the pedestrian lane of a border crossing.
Shannon Pollard and Amy Lennen are facing charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine while armed with a firearm. The charges stem from seizures at a public storage facility and a home in San Diego of 46.1 pounds of methamphetamine, 4,493 fentanyl pills, four AR-15 rifles, two AK-47 rifles, a .22-caliber gun, a disabled grenade and multiple stolen passports and drivers’ licenses last November.
The Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating the women after an informant allegedly told agents Lennen offered to sell methamphetamine at $1,300 a pound to a known narcotics distributor, federal court documents show.
According to the informant, Lennen told the distributor a woman named Natalie who supplied her with the drugs “recruits children to body-carry fentanyl” and other drugs through a the port of entry from Mexico. Records show the DEA also contacted the Carlsbad (California) Police Department after agents learned it was already investigating an illicit drug supplier that they believed was Pollard.