"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat
El Paso County sheriff's investigators arrested a man and a woman accused of selling 50,000 fentanyl-laced pills in a drug bust in a restaurant parking lot last week.
Deputies seized more than 20 pounds of pills, including hundreds of thousands of pills in other packages found inside the Arizona pair's car, according to court documents.
Kevin Peña, 20, and Andromeda Sanchez, 22, who are from the Tucson area, were arrested on two counts each of manufacture/delivery of controlled substance, according to El Paso County Jail records and court documents.
The bust took place on the afternoon of Oct. 6 in the parking lot of the Taco Cabana at 1880 Joe Battle Blvd. near Montwood Drive in far East El Paso, criminal complaint affidavits filed by a sheriff's detective stated.
The Arizona pair showed up for an alleged deal to sell 50,000 counterfeit fentanyl-laced M30 pills for $100,000 to a buyer who was actually an undercover federal agent with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, according to the affidavits and a prosecutor at a bond hearing for Peña.
A deal was made and when the "bundle" of pills was handed to the undercover agent, a signal was given and teams moved in to arrest the pair, the affidavits stated.
The bundle contained more than 3 pounds of blue M30 pills that tested positive for fentanyl, documents stated.
Six more packages of pills, weighing a total of 17 pounds, were then found on the back seat of the pair's Nissan Sentra, affidavits stated. The pills tested positive for fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.
During a teleconference bond hearing this week, a magistrate judge reduced Peña's bond from $500,000 on each charge to $250,000 on each charge after a defense lawyer pointed out he had no criminal record. Sanchez is held on a $500,000 bond on each charge.
Both remain held at the El Paso County Jail in Downtown on Thursday.
'Mexican oxy' dangers
Counterfeit pills made to look like oxycodone M30 pills, are also known as "Mexican oxy," Mexican blues and blues because of the pills' color, though counterfeits, may come in a variety of colors.
The fentanyl-laced pills are manufactured in Mexican cartel labs and smuggled over the border for sale to drug users across the United States.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has issued warnings in El Paso and nationwide regarding counterfeit pills sold on the streets containing potentially lethal amounts of fentanyl.
The DEA cautioned that two out of every five counterfeit pills with fentanyl it has seized contain a potentially lethal dose.
Counterfeit pills are especially dangerous because buyers may think they are purchasing real prescription medication, the DEA cautioned. The fake pills are made to look identical to opioid medications like Oxycontin, Xanax, Vicodin and Percocet.
The DEA warnings do not apply to legitimate prescription medication authorized by a doctor and sold in pharmacies.
More fent killing addicts that don't know how to limit, let's sue Obradors government, since they are trigger happy at suing the gun manufacturer.
ReplyDeleteHere we have another ignorant comment. Lopez Obrador doesn’t manufacture the fentanyl pills ok. López Obrador did not sue the United States government. They sue the weapons manufacturer ok sweetie. You want to sue someone over this, then sue the ones who manufacture the fentanyl pills ok pumpkin.
DeleteSpeaking of ignorance, your grammar and syntax is atrocious. Maybe you were sleeping in school while everyone else was paying attention?
Delete1:05 I’m glad that you can actually point how bad my grammar and syntax happened to be. My level of education was only to the 9th grade in Mexico. English I learned all by myself. I’m more than proud for what I know even with my mistakes. That been said, his comment is still ignorant even when you as his girlfriend came here to defend your guy.
Delete@paisa you sound like a bitch calling someone pumpkin and sweetie
DeleteThe drug trade keeps on sending people to the grave. In Mexico murder and drug overdose are killing more than 100thousand people. In the United States the number is also big. 100 thousand fentanyl dead people in 2020 alone.
ReplyDeleteNo shit Sherlock.
DeleteLol Piassa shetted himself again.
DeleteThat Piassa man is stirring trouble with the ordinary people, that come in to comment. You can't type something decent, or in belittles you. Like the guy that told him offer input on the article, instead he bad-mouths.
DeleteBuying drugs wholesale means, hiding the smack in the kilos'. You don't know that until you are in safe zone and get a call, that their stash was part of the load. You get pissed, that risk was unknown until after the fact. So you take a bit of theirs and all of yours and tell La Linea, don't do it again. Sent mush smaller, lethal, than Coke, Smack and Reefer. Lethal in the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Tellishore
ReplyDeleteHuh?
ReplyDelete👍👍😅
ReplyDelete