Harbor City Dealer Known as 'Giovani Dinero' to Plead Guilty in Fatal Fentanyl Sale

A Harbor City man who went by the street name “Giovani Dinero” has agreed to plead guilty to federal fentanyl distribution and firearms charges nearly four years after a deadly drug sale near his apartment left one person dead and another unconscious. Antjuan Stephone Doss, 36, is accused of delivering fentanyl-laced drugs to two victims waiting in a parked car close to his home, a transaction prosecutors say ended with one of them dead within hours.

According to MyNewsLA.com, Doss sold purported cocaine that was actually laced with fentanyl to two victims identified only as M.N. and G.N. On August 13, 2022, authorities say Doss distributed 45 pills containing fentanyl and delivered the drugs through an intermediary to the pair as they sat in a car near his apartment. Both victims ingested the substance and lost consciousness, according to authorities; M.N. survived only because of medical intervention, while G.N. died of fentanyl toxicity, and G.N.'s death has been linked directly to Doss.

Doss operated in the Los Angeles Harbor region under that “Giovani Dinero” alias, according to the Department of Justice, a nickname that court records indicate roughly translates to “John Money.” The criminal investigation that followed was a joint effort between the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, as Hoodline reported in its earlier coverage of the case, with local deputies working alongside federal agents to build the evidence that led to a search warrant.

What Investigators Found Inside the Apartment

When law enforcement served that search warrant on Doss' car and apartment, they said they recovered a substantial drug cache: a two-pound brick of fentanyl, hundreds of fentanyl pills, suspected powdered fentanyl, and 56 grams of cocaine, all according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Federal prosecutors also say Doss possessed a 9mm semi-automatic pistol and seven rounds of ammunition, despite being legally prohibited from having firearms or ammunition because of a prior felony record.

Court documents indicate that at the time, Doss shared a bedroom in that apartment with a woman and their infant child, and authorities found fentanyl on the floor and in other locations accessible to the child. Doss has a January 2016 felony record out of Los Angeles Superior Court, where he was convicted of identity theft and using an access device without consent, according to court records.

From a Six-Count Indictment to a Plea Deal

A federal grand jury originally returned a six-count indictment against Doss in November 2023, covering distribution resulting in death, conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute, and firearm offenses, according to the Department of Justice. Doss pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned in late 2023. Indictment documents unsealed at that time alleged a co-conspirator supplied Doss with fentanyl powder, pills, and cocaine using couriers between August 9 and August 22, 2022, and that Doss distributed the drugs at that co-conspirator's direction before sending back the sales proceeds — evidence, prosecutors say, that Doss was a retail-level seller operating inside a larger distribution network rather than acting alone.

Now, under a plea agreement, Doss plans to plead guilty in downtown Los Angeles to federal charges of fentanyl distribution and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, per MyNewsLA.com's report. The shift from a six-count indictment to a narrower plea reflects the steep exposure Doss faced. Under 21 U.S.C. § 841, federal drug distribution resulting in death carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and up to life without the possibility of federal parole, according to the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. The felon-in-possession charge under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) separately carries a maximum statutory penalty of up to 15 years, a term raised from 10 years after the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, according to Medvin Law.

A Fatal Sale at the Peak of the County's Fentanyl Surge

The August 2022 sale that killed G.N. and nearly killed M.N. occurred during the most severe stretch of Los Angeles County's fentanyl crisis. Between 2016 and 2022, accidental fentanyl overdose deaths in the county surged more than 1,600%, climbing from 109 fatalities in 2016 to 1,910 in 2022, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

The picture has since shifted. Accidental drug overdose and poisoning deaths countywide fell for three straight years, dropping from an all-time peak of 3,220 deaths in 2022 to 2,298 in 2025, a decline of nearly 30%, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Fentanyl-related deaths dropped more than 40% over that same span, falling from 64% of all fatal county overdoses in 2023 to 49% in 2025, as methamphetamine overtook fentanyl as the county's leading cause of overdose death last year, according to the same public health data.

It remains unclear what sentencing terms Doss negotiated as part of his plea agreement, whether the co-conspirators who allegedly supplied him with fentanyl and cocaine have faced separate charges, or when a federal sentencing date will be set before U.S. District Judge George H. Wu.