The Educational Support Center, a nonprofit organization that maintained an office in Casa de Oro, declared on its website that it offered various services to the community, including “support for anyone who wants to free their lives from drug and/or alcohol addiction (and) a program that helps the youth understand the real effects of drugs.”
But federal authorities allege the Spring Valley center was a front for the exact opposite — the drug trafficking activities of its CEO Algernon Legrand Lundy, a previously convicted drug offender now facing new drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
Authorities arrested Lundy, 52, in November on a two-count indictment charging him with possession of methamphetamine and fentanyl with intent to deliver. This month prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego filed a superseding indictment against Lundy and two co-defendants that further accused Lundy of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and money laundering.
Lundy has remained jailed since his November arrest, and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment. The other two people named in the indictment were not in custody as of Friday, and it was unclear if they had attorneys who could speak on their behalf.
In a search warrant filed last month, a San Diego police officer assigned to a local FBI task force wrote that law enforcement officers had on multiple occasions surveilled the Educational Support Center, which was located in a strip mall on Campo Road and Barcelona Street, and did not identify any activity consistent with a legitimate business.
“Additionally, suspected fentanyl residue was discovered inside the office space belonging to Lundy’s ‘Education Support Center,’” the officer wrote. “Based on the observations and items discovered during the search warrant, it is believed Lundy was not using the Education Support Center as a legitimate business, but as a location to assist in his illegal drug operation.”
Limited tax documents available online appeared to show the center, which first registered as a nonprofit in 2017, did not raise any money through donations, or at least did not report doing so.
The FBI task force also raided five other locations linked to Lundy, according to the police officer’s search warrant and a more recent filing by prosecutors. An assistant U.S. attorney wrote that those searches resulted in officers seizing nearly 8 pounds of fentanyl, more than $22,000 in cash and “two hydraulic presses used to package kilogram quantities of fentanyl.”
In a December court filing, prosecutors said Lundy faces harsher sentences for his new charges than he might otherwise because of his previous conviction on a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine base, commonly known as “crack” cocaine. Lundy pleaded guilty to that charge in 2003 and was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison. His sentence was later reduced by 20 months.
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