Three residents of Hollywood, Florida, have received federal prison sentences for their roles in a drug distribution conspiracy involving methamphetamine, fentanyl, and nitazenes. Josue David Balaguer, 35, and Marcos Geovanny Beltre Olivo, 39, were each sentenced to 141 months in prison. Joel Medina, 36, was sentenced to 48 months.
The group admitted to conspiring to distribute fentanyl and N-Pyrrolidino Protonitazene. Beginning in early 2024, they distributed pressed pills marketed as pharmaceuticals through the mail for online drug distributors operating on both the open web and dark web. These pills contained controlled substances including nitazenes, fentanyl, and methamphetamine. On September 11, 2024, law enforcement executed a search warrant at a residence connected to the defendants and recovered hundreds of thousands of pressed pills along with pill manufacturing equipment and mailing supplies.
U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida announced the sentences along with officials from several agencies: Special Agent in Charge Brett D. Skiles of the FBI Miami Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Deanne L. Reuter of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Miami Field Division; Acting Special Agent in Charge José R. Figueroa of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami; Acting Inspector in Charge Bladismir Rojo of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Miami Division; Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Ulrich of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG); Acting Special Agent in Charge Maximillian Pagano of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA-OCI) Miami Field Office; and Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
The investigation was conducted by FBI Miami, DEA Miami, HSI Miami, USPIS Miami, USPS-OIG, FDA-OCI, and PBSO. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel E. Funk prosecuted the case.
According to information from the DEA’s National Drug Threat Assessment https://www.dea.gov/factsheets/fentanyl, nitazenes are synthetic opioids that can be as potent or more potent than fentanyl itself. Nitazenes have appeared increasingly often mixed with fentanyl since 2019; when combined with fentanyl these drugs increase the risk of fatal overdose.
Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl continue to drive overdose deaths across demographics nationwide https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/fentanyl.html#. Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and even small doses can be deadly—two milligrams may be fatal according to health authorities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
Florida has seen a significant rise in deaths linked to fentanyl use https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/MEC/Publications-and-Forms/Documents/Drugs-in-Deceased-Persons/2022-Annual-Drug-Report-FINAL-(1).aspx. In 2022 alone, more than 5,622 people died from overdoses involving fentanyl or its analogs within the state.
“Fentanyl has proven to be a deadly poison that does not discriminate. Its victims include every gender, race, age, and economic background, and its debilitating effects are the same across all demographics,” stated officials involved in this case.
For further details about this case or related court documents see www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl or www.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 24-cr-80112.
