Flores

BACKGROUND

After responding to an advertisement for the sale of fentanyl pills posted on “an online Classifieds forum” (craigslist.com), an undercover police officer negotiated the purchase of 1,000 fentanyl pills for $2,400 “via text

1 message.”1 Using “law enforcement databases,” police discovered the phone number the seller provided to the undercover officer “was assigned to a voice over internet [protocol] (VOIP) subscriber.” VOIP is “an internet-based” program that “can be downloaded on any phone” and is “commonly use[d]” by “people involved with illicit controlled substance sales . . . to hide their identities.” After a “records check” revealed that Flores’s California driver’s license had been suspended or revoked, police officers made contact with Flores as the driver of a Toyota Camry and his passenger on October 26, 2023. A subsequent probable cause search uncovered “approximately 991 fentanyl pills” in the pocket of Flores’s passenger. Flores was in possession of a cell phone, which he confirmed belonged to him. When the undercover officer texted and called the phone number he had been communicating with to coordinate the fentanyl purchase, Flores’s “phone was alerted…