A federal jury in Tampa on Thursday convicted two men of distributing fentanyl that prosecutors say caused the overdose death of a University of South Florida student. Federal prosecutors announced the verdict as the latest turn in a 2024 case that began with a multi-defendant indictment and has become another warning shot about the dangers of counterfeit pills in the Tampa area.
According to a post by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, jurors returned the guilty verdicts in Tampa’s federal courthouse. The office highlighted several local law enforcement partners that worked the case.
Indictment and alleged scheme
The case traces back to a grand jury indictment unsealed in June 2024 that charged four Tampa residents, Miguel Cintron, Marquise Trant, David Chudhabuddhi and Darrius Gustafson, with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl resulting in death. Prosecutors allege the group pressed pills to resemble Percocet and sold them around Tampa; one buyer, an 18-year-old University of South Florida student, died after taking what he believed was a legitimate prescription pain pill. Those details were reported by FOX 13 Tampa Bay.
What investigators seized
When law enforcement executed a search warrant at Cintron’s residence in April 2024, they recovered firearms, more than seven kilograms of cocaine, roughly one kilogram of heroin, about 1,200 pressed fentanyl pills and more than $200,000 in cash, prosecutors said. Those seizures, detailed in a June 2024 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, helped federal prosecutors link the pills to the fatal overdose and move the case to trial.
Legal stakes and what is next
Federal law treats distribution of fentanyl that results in death as an especially serious offense, with convictions carrying mandatory minimums that can reach 20 years to life, local reporting noted. The two men just convicted will now face sentencing before a federal judge; court records have not yet posted sentencing dates, FOX 13 Tampa Bay reported.
Public health context
Counterfeit pills pressed to look like prescription opioids and containing illicitly manufactured fentanyl have been tied to many recent overdose deaths across the country. Surveillance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlights the ongoing threat posed by fentanyl and its analogs, a backdrop that has shaped enforcement priorities in Tampa and throughout Florida as agencies ramp up interdiction efforts.
Agencies on the case
Prosecutors credited investigators from the University of South Florida Police Department, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and the ATF, along with the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner, for piecing together the evidence, according to a federal release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. Assistant U.S. Attorney Candace Garcia Rich is listed as the prosecutor handling the matter.
Sentencing dates and the identities of the two men convicted were not included in the office’s social post. Public health officials continue to urge caution, recommending that people carry naloxone if appropriate and treat any pill of unknown origin as potentially deadly.
