08/06/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/06/2026 17:12
LOS ANGELES - A Calabasas man was sentenced today to 324 months in federal prison for running what prosecutors called a "DoorDash for drugs" service that delivered illicit narcotics to buyers in Los Angeles and Ventura counties and resulted in two fatal fentanyl overdoses.
Erick Oved Estrada, 37, a.k.a. "Franco Sanchez" and "Eric Freddy Hook," was sentenced by United States District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald, who also ordered him to pay $43,145 in restitution.
Estrada, who has been in federal custody since November 2023, pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances resulting in death and one count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death.
According to court documents, from May 2019 to March 2023, Estrada obtained narcotics, including cocaine and purported oxycodone pills that contained fentanyl. Estrada and his accomplices then provided these drugs to a network of drug delivery drivers for further distribution to customers or other drug distributors. The delivery drivers then directly provided the drugs to customers or distributors and collected payment.
On June 8, 2022, Estrada sold 25 fentanyl-laced oxycodone pills to co-defendant Arian Alani, 37, a Danish national living in Burbank, and a delivery driver. The following day, Alani sold some of these pills to the victim, identified in the indictment as "C.N.," who ingested them and died of a drug overdose. Two days later, Alani confronted Estrada via text message and wrote, "my boy just died yesterday" - a reference to C.N. - and that Estrada "[s]houldn't be selling [expletive] with fentanyl."
In March 2023, Estrada knowingly and intentionally distributed fentanyl to a victim - identified in court documents as "S.M." The victim earlier had texted someone to purchase two Xanax pills and two oxycodone pills for $80.
On the evening of March 8, 2023, Estrada's driver, on Estrada's behalf, provided to S.M. the purported Xanax pills and oxycodone pills, which contained fentanyl. S.M. then returned home, where she ingested the fentanyl she received from Estrada's drug delivery service, which caused her to suffer a fatal drug overdose.
Alani pleaded guilty in September 2025 to one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and is scheduled for sentencing on December 2 and faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter. The DEA Overdose Justice Task Force, the Simi Valley Police Department, the Burbank Police Department, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department provided assistance.
This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. 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.
Assistant United States Attorneys Jeremy K. Beecher of the Transnational Organized Crime Section and Nicholas G. Purcell of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section prosecuted this case.