Huntington Beach man sentenced in drug trafficking and money laundering scheme

Damon Vincent Jobin of Huntington Beach, 35, was sentenced Monday in federal court in South Dakota to more than 24 years in prison for his involvement in a drug trafficking and money laundering scheme.

Jobin, who was arrested in Thailand in June 2019 after an apparent attempt to evade arrest, pleaded guilty in June this year to federal charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to distribute a fentanyl analogue.

U.S. District Judge Karen E. Schreier sentenced Jobin to 292 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for the fentanyl distribution. He also was sentenced to 240 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for the money laundering charges. The terms are to run concurrently.

Federal prosecutors said that Jobin and other conspirators utilized the Dark Web to distribute about 100,000 fentanyl or fentanyl analogue pills in 2017 to South Dakota drug dealers. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid similar to morphine but up to 100 times more potent.

In all, Jobin manufactured and mailed more than 200 packages containing over 2.6 million fentanyl or fentanyl analogue pills to addresses in 32 different states, prosecutors said. He was also charged with using online cryptocurrency exchanges to launder the funds from those sales.

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“This defendant was selling millions of poisonous, home-pressed fentanyl pills to people all over the country,” U.S. Atty. Ron Parsons said in a statement. “He was caught because of some great police work done right here in South Dakota. This case demonstrates the dramatic, national impact that federal, state and local law enforcement, working together, can have in getting these poisons off the streets. The detective work done by these law enforcement officers saved a lot of lives.”

Jobin was indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2018 and arrested in Los Angeles the following month. After he was released on a $25,000 bond, authorities said he fled to Thailand before he was apprehended. He originally pleaded not guilty to the charges in district court in July 2019.

Several agencies, including the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations Western Cyber Crimes Unit and Costa Mesa Police Department, aided the investigation. Costa Mesa police said last year that they had arrested four individuals who were suspected of distributing and receiving pills from Jobin in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach.

“The ongoing opioid crisis is not only affecting the community of Costa Mesa but all of Orange County, the state and the nation,” Costa Mesa Police Chief Bryan Glass said in a statement. “This case shows the great local, state and federal collaborative effort it takes to bring those involved to justice. We are glad to have contributed and be involved in this investigation which led to the sentencing. As a law enforcement agency, we will continue to focus on the opioid crisis for the safety of every community.”

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