A 56-year-old Mar Vista man known on the street as El Gato was sentenced to 11 years and three months in federal prison this week after admitting he sold 14,418 fentanyl pills and multiple firearms out of the Westside neighborhood between July 2023 and March 2025. Antonio Espinoza Zarate, a Mexican national who had already been deported from the United States four times, pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl before his sentencing this week.
According to reporting by Westside Current, which credited City News Service for reporting on the story, Espinoza Zarate worked with others to obtain distribution-level quantities of fentanyl for sale, moving thousands of pills to buyers over roughly a year and a half. Federal authorities arrested him in March 2025. He has remained in federal custody ever since.
Court records described two major transactions at the heart of the case. One buyer paid Espinoza Zarate $4,500 for 4,592 pills containing 527 grams of fentanyl, along with $1,700 for a Glock pistol and 131 rounds of ammunition. A second buyer paid $8,000 for 9,826 pills containing slightly more than a kilogram of fentanyl, plus $2,000 for a rifle, according to the same report.
A Family Operation Uncovered by Federal Agents
Espinoza Zarate was not arrested alone. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, he was arrested in March 2025 alongside his 31-year-old son, Francisco Javier Espinoza Galindo of Santa Monica, who was charged with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl for allegedly being present during the deals or providing illicit items for two sales. Federal affidavits also describe additional black-market activity beyond the charges Espinoza Zarate ultimately pleaded to, including the sale of a rifle, pistol, revolver, and ammunition in January 2025, per the department's account.
The elder Espinoza Zarate's criminal history stretches back nearly two decades. Court documents cited by the Department of Justice show a 2008 felony conviction in Los Angeles Superior Court for possession of narcotics for sale, and a 2015 felony conviction in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona for illegal reentry. He was removed from the country in 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2017, according to the seed reporting.
Sentencing and the Legal Stakes
United States District Judge Wesley L. Hsu handed down the 135-month sentence, equal to 11 years and three months, in federal court in Los Angeles this week. Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Thakor of the Major Crimes Section prosecuted the case. Federal authorities had charged Espinoza Zarate with possessing fentanyl with intent to distribute and illegally reentering the United States.
Under federal sentencing statutes, possessing with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of a mixture containing fentanyl carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and up to life, as reported by CBS News. That statutory floor was 10 years, while Espinoza Zarate received 135 months.
Multi-Agency Task Force Behind the Case
The investigation was led by the Homeland Security Investigations-run El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the U.S. Attorney's Office. The linked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement release concerns a separate COVID-relief-fraud investigation.
The case unfolded against a backdrop of shifting overdose trends across Los Angeles County. Overall drug overdose deaths in the county fell 22% in 2024 and dropped another 6% in 2025 to 2,298 fatalities, a nearly 30% decline from the county's historic peak of 3,220 overdose deaths in 2022, according to the Los Angeles Times. Fentanyl-related fatalities specifically dropped 40% between 2022 and 2025, falling from 64% of all overdose deaths at their 2023 peak to 49% in 2025, per the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
County health data also shows adults aged 40 to 64 accounted for 53% of all drug overdose deaths in 2025, with men making up 77% of victims overall. Separately, multi-institutional research published in early 2024 found that U.S. adolescent overdose deaths more than doubled between August 2019 and March 2020, then continued to intensify through 2022, driven largely by counterfeit prescription pills manufactured with illicit fentanyl, even as overall teen drug use declined, according to research indexed on PubMed Central.
It remains unclear what has become of the charges against Espinoza Zarate's son, Francisco Espinoza Galindo, or whether federal immigration detainers will trigger deportation proceedings once Espinoza Zarate completes his sentence.
