Tekola

I. BACKGROUND

A. Tekola’s Drug Dealing On September 16, 2022, in Goleta, California, fentanyl killed yet another young person. Federal agents tracked how the fentanyl reached this victim and determined that Tekola was the ultimate source. Through interviews and review of messages exchanged online, the agents also learned that Tekola had been selling drugs for years, frequently from his apartment. A search warrant confirmed their suspicions. Inside Tekola’s apartment, the agents found almost $13,000 in cash, phones, a pay-owe sheet, baggies, a food saver vacuum sealer, and multiple scales with white residue. Also discovered in his bedroom: 458.1 grams of cocaine, 687 pills containing 72.8 grams of fentanyl, hundreds of counterfeit Adderall pills laced with methamphetamine, and other drugs. Tekola later admitted that the nearly $13,000 in seized cash came from drug dealing, and that a safe in his bedroom closet was primarily used to store his drugs and drug proceeds. Tekola’s phone also provided a mountain of

USA V. TEKOLA

drug dealing evidence and confirmed that his apartment was the hub of his years-long trafficking operation. He sometimes concealed…