Horacio Torrecillas Urias Jr., the 23-year-old known as the "M30 King of Fresno," has entered a guilty plea to charges of fentanyl distribution and conspiracy to distribute and possess methamphetamine and fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert confirmed. The plea came in the wake of a concentrated effort to crack down on a series of fentanyl-pill overdoses that plagued the Fresno area, caused by counterfeit oxycodone M30 tablets laced with fentanyl, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The investigation, code-named "Operation Killer High", targeted a drug-trafficking syndicate led by Torrecillas Urias, who was said to heavily and directly obtain thousands of counterfeit fentanyl pills and substantive quantities of fentanyl powder, methamphetamine, and cocaine from Mexico. During their operation, law enforcement carried out traffic stops, package interceptions, and residential search warrants, managing to seize over 55,000 counterfeit M30 fentanyl pills, in addition to various drugs and firearms, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Federal, state, and local authorities, including the Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Fresno Police Department's Fentanyl Overdose Resolution Team, were instrumental in busting the ring. The coordinated effort resulted in charges against 17 additional defendants, most of whom have pleaded guilty, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office. The one defendant remaining, Alma Garza, awaits trial on September 24.
Scheduled to receive his sentence on December 2, Torrecillas Urias faces a span of penalties ranging from a mandatory minimum of 10 years to the possibility of life imprisonment. The final verdict will ultimately be at the discretion of U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston, after reviewing statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
This case is a component of Operation Synthetic Opioid Surge, an initiative spearheaded in July 2018 by the Justice Department to mitigate synthetic opioids' deadly toll and to pinpoint the networks that distribute them. Efforts such as these highlight the breadth and depth of the ongoing struggle to combat the opioid epidemic ravaging communities, a struggle that saw tangible results with "Operation Killer High."
