California Man Indicted for Drug Distribution & Money Laundering Conspiracies

Pensacola, Florida - Kelvin Henriques Jr., 32, of Los Angeles, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury charging him with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl and conspiracy to commit money laundering. John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, announced the charges today.

Henriques appeared for his arraignment in federal court before United States Magistrate Judge Zachary C. Bolitho in Pensacola, Florida. Jury trial is scheduled for May 18, 2026, at 9:00 am before District Court Judge T. Kent Wetherell, II.

If convicted, Henriques faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years' imprisonment up to life in prison for the drug count and up to 20 years' imprisonment for the money laundering count.

The case is the result of a joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Alicia H. Forbes is prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation by a grand jury that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF comprises agents and officers from multiple agencies with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida.

The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation's principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. To access available public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of FloridaLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link. website. For more information about the United States Attorney's Office, Northern District of Florida, visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndfl.