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.
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.
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