A Crosby man has been slapped with charges for peddling fentanyl that took two lives and left another person seriously injured. Joshua Ray Stebelton, 24, was cuffed and is set to face U.S. Magistrate Judge Dena Hanovice Palermo after a federal indictment hit the stands, charging him with weaving a deadly four-year conspiracy to distribute a hefty 440 grams of the lethal synthetic opioid, as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas announced.
The indictment unsealed following Stebelton's arrest accuses him of distributing the killer drug on numerous occasions between November 2020 and June 2023. It's alleged that in one chilling incident, he pushed less than 40 grams of fentanyl which led directly to kill someone in November 2020. In a similar vein, he's accused to have again distributed the drug in January 2021, resulting in another casualty.
The court papers hurl a total of seven counts of distribution at Stebelton, a legal blitz that could land him in the slammer for life, not to mention the possibility of getting slammed with a $10 million punch to the wallet if convicted. As the wheels of justice start to turn, the FBI, Houston Police Department, and Harris County Sheriff’s Office are getting a nod for their gumshoe work in the investigation that brought Stebelton to the dock.
