Arizona Woman Sentenced To 12 Years For Selling Fake Pills That Killed One Man
Read PSM’s Fentanyl 101 to learn more about how fentanyl gets into fake medicines
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced the 12-year sentence of Arizona resident Fany Madrigal-Lopez after she pleaded in April 2018 to federal drug charges for the distribution of counterfeit fentanyl pills that resulted in a death. The DEA started their investigation in February 2017 after agents received a report on the overdose death of a 38-year-old man. Evidence showed that Madrigal-Lopez sold him the Mexican-made counterfeit oxycodone containing fentanyl that killed him on November 16, 2016.
Court documents stated that between the fall of 2015 and August 2017, Madrigal-Lopez received quantities of counterfeit blue oxycodone pills marked “M-30” that contained fentanyl, cocaine, and alprazolam from others in Arizona. She and her other three co-defendants would then sell the pills to customers. Even after Madrigal-Lopez learned of the man’s November 2016 death, she continued to sell the fake pills, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
The other three co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to their roles in drug scheme. Paulina Madrigal-Macias received 36 months probation for conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances. Adolfo Macias-Madrigal and Luis Angel Macias both pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a communications facility as part of a drug conspiracy. Macias-Madrigal was released due to time he had already served. Macias received a sentence of 24 months supervision.
Special Agent in Charge of the DEA in Arizona Doug Coleman said, “This first-of-its-kind sentencing in Arizona illustrates DEA’s commitment to local partnership through our Heroin Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) and using all the resources available to us to protect American citizens from the scourge of fentanyl trafficking.” The efforts of the DEA, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Peoria Police Department, and the Arizona National Guard made this case possible. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carolina Escalante Konti, D.J. Pashayan, and Jeffrey Borup prosecuted this case.