Men Busted With Enough Fentanyl to Kill All of NY and NJ Sentenced to Prison

Men Busted With Enough Fentanyl to Kill All of NY and NJ Sentenced to Prison

Jesus Carillo-Pineda and Daniel Vasquez had enough fentanyl on them to kill 18 million people, cops say

TRENTON, New Jersey — Two drug dealers busted with enough fentanyl to kill the entire populations of New York and New Jersey have been sentenced to jail.

Jesus Carillo-Pineda, 31, of Philadelphia, and Daniel Vasquez, 28, of Somerton, Arizona, were busted last June when narcotics cops watched them exchange a 40 kilos of the drug in a parking lot in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Cops later found another five kilos of fentanyl at a home in WIllingboro where Carillo-Pineda had been staying. The owner of the home, Omar Zeus Rodriguez, 38, remains a fugitive, authorities said.

“A seizure of this magnitude, which had enough lethal doses to wipe out the entire population of New Jersey twice over, in all likelihood prevented someone from ever taking their first dose, saving them from a life of misery and addiction,” said Colonel Patrick Callahan, Acting Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.

Carillo-Pineda was sentenced to 10 years for the drug charges, while Vasquez was hit with six years behind bars.

Fentanyl is an extremely powerful synthetic opioid that drug dealers often mix with heroin and other drugs. But if they mix in too much, it can easily result in an overdose.

Officials say the number of fentanyl overdose deaths in New Jersey — much like the rest of the country — have been skyrocketing. In 2016, 800 people suffered fatal overdoses in the state, up from 517 the year before.