A California man received a 10-year prison sentence this Tuesday after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to distribute a deadly amount of fentanyl pills, a substance famously potent and dangerous, across the United States. George Anthony Manzo, 37, of Redlands, was also handed down five years of supervised release following the prison term, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada.

Manzo, who used Snapchat to communicate with customers and arrange drug transactions, sold 500 fentanyl pills on March 17, 2021, and another 2,000 pills to his co-defendant later that month. The arrest came after a traffic stop in June 2021 where authorities found about 30,000 pills in the car Manzo was riding in. Despite being released while awaiting test results, Manzo fled the country with his girlfriend and her three children, only to be apprehended six months later in Mexico.

On January 2, Manzo pled guilty to one count each of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. His case is a part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program, which uses a multi-agency approach to crack down on high-level criminal organizations.

"Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat the United States has ever faced" disclosed the DEA, noting that the substance was involved in two-thirds of the 107,081 drug overdose deaths in 2022. In the first half of 2023 alone, fentanyl has been blamed for the deaths of 38,000 Americans. The DEA warns that just a single pill can be fatal, and laboratory testing indicates seven out of 10 seized pills contain a potentially lethal dose.