Three men involved in large-scale drug trafficking in Washoe County are going to prison following investigations by local law enforcement, officials announced.
Efrain Salazar-Gurrola, convicted by a jury last September of trafficking a controlled substance, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison, with eligibility for parole after 10 years. Prosecutors had argued for a sentence ranging from 10 years to life, citing Salazar-Gurrola’s connections to organized Mexican drug cartels and the extreme danger he posed to the community.
Detectives with the Regional Narcotics Unit began investigating Salazar-Gurrola in September 2022 after receiving information that he was selling heroin and methamphetamine. Authorities arranged a controlled purchase of two pounds of methamphetamine, and when deputies attempted to arrest him, he tried to flee. Officers recovered over two pounds of methamphetamine from his vehicle, an amount authorities say equals more than 5,000 doses.
In a separate case, Kengji Battle received a sentence of 10 to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to trafficking fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine, after being arrested in September 2024 during a traffic stop in which a K9 unit alerted deputies to narcotics in his vehicle. Officers recovered three pounds of methamphetamine, a quarter pound of cocaine, and 0.33 pounds of fentanyl, totaling thousands of doses of illegal drugs.
Finally, Pablo Doval-Avalos, 29, is now sentenced to 25 years in prison, with eligibility for parole after 10 years, after pleading guilty to trafficking a controlled substance. He had previously admitted to trafficking more than 400 grams of illegal drugs.
The case stems from a months-long investigation by the Washoe County Narcotics Task Force, which culminated in Doval-Avalos’s arrest on September 30, 2024. Officials seized a total of 58 pounds of methamphetamine, one pound of heroin, 3,500 fentanyl pills, and two firearms. The street value of the drugs was more than $850,000.
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