SAN DIEGO — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - California, Southern), published as received.

SAN DIEGO – Former sailors Bailey A. Szramowski and Johnnese H. Poomaihealani pleaded guilty in federal court this morning to selling counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl to active-duty U.S. Navy servicemembers stationed in San Diego, including during deployments.

According to court records, Szramowski provided an active-duty U.S. Navy servicemember assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln with 10 purported oxycodone pills in December 2022. The victim, identified in court records by his initials, A.N., overdosed and died of acute fentanyl intoxication in January 2023. 

Despite knowing of A.N.’s death, Szramowski sold three more purported oxycodone pills to another sailor, identified as C.L., just 10 days later. After that sailor was taken to the hospital for a suspected overdose from which he recovered, Szramowski and Poomaihealani called C.L. and instructed C.L. to tell law enforcement he received the pills from A.N. and not Szramowski.

Szramowski and Poomaihealani are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ruth Bermudez Montenegro on December 11, 2026.

Special agents and task force officers with HSI San Diego’s Fentanyl Abatement and Suppression Team (FAST) led this investigation. HSI San Diego’s FAST is a multiagency task force comprising state, local, and federal partners and was first established in August 2022 focusing on the disruption and dismantlement of criminal organizations that smuggle and distribute fentanyl within San Diego County. HSI’s FAST targets fentanyl smuggling and distribution networks to counter the rising overdose rate and decrease the availability and accessibility of fentanyl.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith D. Ellison. Former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Samson Schatz contributed significantly to the case.

DEFENDANTS                                            Case Number 20cr2682-GPC                                  

Bailey A. Szramowski                        Age: 29                                   Hawaii

Johnnese H. Poomaihealani                Age: 25                                   Hawaii

SUMMARY OF CHARGES

Conspiracy to Distribute Controlled Substances – Title 21, U.S.C., Sections 841(a)(1) and 846

Maximum penalties:

  • Szramowski: A minimum of five years in prison up to 40 years, and $5,000,000 fine
  • Poomaihealani: Twenty years in prison and $1 million fine

INVESTIGATING AGENCIES

Homeland Security Investigations

Naval Criminal Investigative Service

California Department of Justice

This case was investigated and prosecuted by the California Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) as part of Operation Take Back America. HSTFs, which were established by President Trump in Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion, are joint operations led by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Operation Take Back America is a nationwide federal initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).