Mother charged with bringing fentanyl into California juvenile facility

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has charged a 41-year-old mother with three felonies for attempting to bring more than 30 fentanyl pills into the county juvenile facility holding her son in 2023.

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The mother, Jeny Morenoparra, was caught and arrested at the time, but charges were not filed until this year, when the District Attorney’s Office decided to reopen the case, according to District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who took office in 2024.

Morenoparra faces felony charges for bringing an illegal substance into a jail facility, employment of a minor to sell or carry a narcotic and possession of a controlled substance. She is scheduled for arraignment Friday, Aug. 1.

“The defendant, a mother of one of the facility’s residents, is accused of attempting to introduce fentanyl, an incredibly dangerous drug, endangering the very child she came to visit as well as potentially many of the other juveniles in the facility,” Hochman said in a statement.

“She was initially arrested two years ago in 2023 and soon released with no charges filed until I had the case reviewed. Fentanyl is too dangerous a threat — 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine — to not treat its lethality with the seriousness and immediacy it requires.”

Prosecutors reviewed the case in May and an arrest warrant was issued on June 28, according to court records. The Los Angeles County Probation Department’s Special Enforcement Operations Team carried out the arrest on July 11 without incident, officials said.

The pills found in her possession during a search at the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar in 2023 later tested positive for fentanyl, according to the Probation Department.

“Introducing drugs into a secure facility endangers public safety and lives, and undermines rehabilitation,” said Guillermo Viera Rosa, chief probation officer, in a statement. “We appreciate the District Attorney’s focus on accountability and public safety.”

It’s unclear why charges were not filed in 2023 under then-District Attorney George Gascon. A spokesperson for the Probation Department referred a question about the delayed charges to the District Attorney’s Office, which did not immediately respond.

This is the third major drug-related arrest by the Probation Department in the last two months. In June, the department arrested a probation officer, Michael Solis, for allegedly smuggling Xanax into the now-closed juvenile hall portion of Barry J. Nidorf in 2023. A hand-off between Solis and the juvenile was caught on camera. The juvenile was later found to have 106 pills of Xanax in his possession.

Then, in July, the Probation Department arrested a contracted school tutor, Alejandro Lopez, for allegedly attempting to bring 170 Xanax pills into the facility. An 18-year-old in custody in the facility, Orlando Cuevas, also was charged as a result.

The county, in response, has announced plans to install airport-style body scanners and increase the use of drug-sniffing canines in an effort to halt the flow of drugs into its juvenile facilities.