Miami
AI Assisted Icon
Published on January 18, 2025
Four South Florida Individuals Sentenced for Distributing Fatal Drugs Including Fentanyl and MethamphetamineSource: Unsplash/Emiliano Bar

Four individuals from South Florida have been handed prison sentences for their roles in distributing lethal drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine. According to a press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, Gito St Fort, Anwar Hazzi, Samantha Yi, and Darnell Julio Mendez faced justice for their distribution of controlled substances that led to fatal and near-fatal overdoses.

St Fort, who has a past dotted with criminal activity, received a 320-month sentence on Thursday after pleading guilty to his role in a death caused by the drugs he distributed. Details obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office revealed on December 24, 2023, St Fort sold fentanyl to a victim who tragically overdosed while visiting with family. Hazzi received a 200-month sentence on Jan. 15 for selling significant quantities of drugs, concealed as counterfeit prescription pills, over a nearly year-long period.

In a related case on Wednesday, Samantha Yi was sentenced to 288 months after she and her boyfriend, Mendez, provided fentanyl to a mother whose infant fatally overdosed on the drug. Mendez, already with a criminal history, was sentenced earlier to 360 months. These sentences underscore the gravity of the opioid epidemic's stranglehold on communities across the nation, with synthetic opioids like fentanyl claiming lives indiscriminately.

The DEA's National Drug Threat Assessment highlights the dangers of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, and their heightened potency, even more so when mixed with drugs like nitazenes. The lethal capability of these drugs lies starkly presented in statistics from the CDC, portraying a harrowing picture of over 150 fatalities a day due to synthetic opioids overdoses. The toll is considerable in Florida, where over 5,622 overdose deaths involved fentanyl and its analogs in 2022 alone.

Recognizing the broad impact of this crisis, the DEA continues to warn the public through campaigns like "One Pill Can Kill," emphasizing the fatal potentialities of seemingly miniscule amounts of fentanyl – as little as two milligrams. The collaborative efforts of the DEA Miami Field Division, alongside local law enforcement agencies and the Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam McMichael, Brian Ralston, and Shannon O’Shea Darsch, brought these cases to a decisive conclusion, reflecting a persistent fight against drug distribution and its devastating societal costs, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Miami-Crime & Emergencies