Texas Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Selling Fentanyl-Laced Pills That Killed 20-Year-Old

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Texas man was sentenced July 24 to 15 years in federal prison for trafficking fentanyl laced pills that resulted in the death of a 20-year-old victim.

The multiagency investigation that led to the sentence was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston’s Corpus Christi office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Jim Wells County Sheriff’s Office, and police departments in Corpus Christi, Aransas Pass and Mathis.

Ricardo Julyan Kross Rios, a 22-year-old resident of Corpus Christi, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to 15 years in federal prison to be immediately followed by four years of supervised release for selling, distributing or dispensing a controlled substance resulting in death. Rios pleaded guilty to the charges on July 26, 2023.

“This case is another unfortunate example of the dangers of purchasing and taking illicit street drugs,” said HSI Houston Special Agent in Charge Mark Dawson. “Drug trafficking organizations have flooded our local communities with illegal narcotics that contain deadly levels of fentanyl and at any time, you could be ingesting a lethal amount and not even know it until it’s too late. Thankfully, in this case, we were able to track down the drug trafficker who was responsible for taking this man’s life and hold him accountable.”

The investigation began on Dec. 10, 2022, when authorities responded to a reported drug overdose at a residence in Corpus Christi. Upon their arrival, they discovered a nonresponsive individual who was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy later determined the cause of death was acute fentanyl toxicity.

Further investigation revealed that the victim had purchased pills from Rios on Dec. 9, 2022, in a parking lot adjacent to an apartment where a party was occurring. The victim consumed them during that event.

The next morning the 20-year-old male victim’s girlfriend found him lifeless on a living room sofa, cold to the touch and not breathing. He had fallen asleep there next to her after the party. She immediately called 911, but paramedics were unable to resuscitate him.

Questioning of witnesses from the party described the pills that he had taken as “press made” hydrocodone pills which may have contained fentanyl. On Jan. 17, 2023, law enforcement encountered Rios at a residence in Corpus Christi in possession of a plastic bag containing pressed pills, as well as some additional loose powder and partial pills. Laboratory analysis later confirmed the pills and powder in the plastic bag contained fentanyl.

Rios will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert D. Thorpe Jr. prosecuted the case.

For more news and information on HSI’s efforts to aggressively investigate drug trafficking in Southeast Texas follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSIHouston.

In fiscal year 2023, HSI seized more than 1.24 million pounds of illicit narcotics including more than 41,000 pounds of fentanyl and arrested 10,431 suspected drug traffickers, which led to 4,592 convictions for drug trafficking-related offenses.