LIVERMORE — A Tracy man has been charged with being a drug dealer with a shockingly young clientele: students at a local K-8th grade school.
Brian Gonzalez, 20, has been charged with multiple felonies for allegedly furnishing cannabis, nicotine, and psilocybin to 6th to 8th graders at Joe Michell Elementary School. Livermore police have spent most of the year investigating Gonzalez, who was charged on Oct. 22, court records show.
The charges include selling and furnishing cannabis to a minor, possession of psilocybin for sale, possession of cannabis for sale, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and selling tobacco products without a license, police said in a news release.
The investigation started back in April when a school resource officer took three separate complaints from parents at the school that their children were acquiring illicit substances from a local source. Police investigated it further and tracked the Gonzalez to an Instagram account entitled “Jose Exotics All Around.”
Gonzalez was allegedly accepting electronic payments and used a 13-year-old boy as a middleman for some drug transactions, according to court records. The youngest child who bought drugs from him was 12, according to police.
In text messages found on Gonzalez’s phone, he allegedly discussed renting a moving van to buy cannabis products in bulk from Los Angeles, and using the proceeds to buy an apartment in his mother’s name, authorities said. They say they also found texts indicating he sometimes refused to sell to kids who contacted him without a reference from someone he trusted.
Police also allegedly tracked electronic payments showing he did deals in high frequency — nine payments took place within a seven-day period in July, for instance.
In a series of raids, police allegedly took $40,000 in cash and vapes valued at an estimated $125,000 from Gonzalez, Livermore police said in a news release.
Gonzalez is out of custody, according to court records.
