A 26-year-old Mexican national was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison after he was busted transporting 24 pounds of opioids, including 11 pounds of fentanyl, in Texas this year.
Jesus Florencio Chaparro-Sanchez was arrested in late May after being stopped by a Texas State Trooper for traffic violations while driving a black Pontiac G6, according to a Justice Department release. The trooper conducted a search of the vehicle and discovered nine bundles of a white powdery substance concealed near the vehicle’s rear axle in an after-market compartment.
During questioning, Mr. Chaparro-Sanchez reportedly admitted that “a man in Mexico had offered him a job transporting the drugs.” He also said he knew the vehicle contained drugs, but believed he was transporting cocaine. Testing of the substance later revealed the seized items consisted of approximately four kilograms of Tramadol, plus roughly five kilograms of fentanyl. Tramadol is a prescription opioid medication and fentanyl a powerful substance which the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) warns is 50-100 times more potent than morphine. Chaparro-Sanchez pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute in August after his May arrest.
“This deadly drug is wreaking havoc across the country,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox. “Many users don’t realize traffickers are cutting other, less potent drugs with cheap fentanyl.”
Fentanyl which can be ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through bare skin, is blamed for the “sharp increase in opioid deaths across the U.S.,” according to the DOJ. In three years, the fentanyl death toll has risen more than 5,000 percent from 2014 to 2017, according to the National Institute of Health. Fentanyl also poses a risk to law enforcement when processing a scene or seized material. Only a few milligrams on unprotected skin can trigger a life-threatening overdose.
Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com
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