Caught shipping meth in children’s toys, Fresno man sentenced for crimes in federal court

Nearly seven years after being arrested, a 59-year-old Fresno man has been sentenced for his role in a scheme to ship bags of methamphetamine in children’s toys to North Carolina.

Leslie Hood was sentenced in federal court on Monday to 12 years in prison for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert on Tuesday.

The charges stem from June 2016, when Hood brought several packages to a FedEx business in Fresno.

According to court documents, each package contained a kid’s toy and inside each toy was a bag of meth. The total weight of the seized drugs was in excess of 200 grams.

Hood was arrested and has been in custody since 2017. Two other co-defendants were sentenced in the case in 2018, the statement said: Richard Ormond received 10 years in prison in 2018 and Sharron Aycock was sentenced to three years.

The arrests were part of an operation from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, which identifies, disrupts and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations, according to the statement from the Justice Department.