A 46-year-old man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for smuggling fentanyl into the Downtown El Paso County Detention Center in a scheme that killed his 49-year-old cellmate. Eric Robles pleaded guilty to murder and manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance, and his sentences will run concurrently alongside a separate 15-year term for the drug charge.
According to KVIA, Robles was housed in the same cell block as Jesus Hernandez, who was found dead at the detention center on May 23, 2024. Hernandez was transferred to a federal detention facility in Sierra Blanca that same day, and an autopsy later revealed a deadly dosage of fentanyl in his system at the time of his death. Authorities discovered a package containing more than 25 grams of fentanyl concealed in Robles' lower bowel, the station reports.
A First-of-Its-Kind Sentencing in West Texas
Per the 34th Judicial District Attorney's Office, the sentencing marks the first of its kind in West Texas, with Robles becoming the first defendant in the region sentenced under Texas House Bill 6 — a 2023 law that allows murder charges against people who manufacture, deliver, or supply fentanyl that causes a deadly overdose, the same report notes. Authorities executed a federal arrest warrant on Robles on May 16, 2024, at the Ysleta Port of Entry, according to the same account.
The case was built on a separate procedural timeline detailed by the DEA. On April 3, 2025, an El Paso County grand jury indicted Robles on state charges of murder and manufacture/delivery of fentanyl, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Robles was then transferred on April 23, 2025, from federal prison custody to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office just weeks before he would have completed an unrelated federal drug sentence, per the DEA.
Multi-Agency Task Force Traced the Overdose
The fatal overdose investigation inside the detention center was conducted by the El Paso Fentanyl Overdose Response Team, or FORT, a multi-agency task force operating under the West Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area initiative, the DEA notes. The team combines resources from the DEA, FBI, U.S. Army CID, Texas DPS, Texas National Guard, El Paso Sheriff's Office, and El Paso Police Department. Before Robles' state indictment, the DEA's El Paso Division had already secured federal distribution-causing-death convictions against 10 individuals, resulting in a combined 152 years in federal prison without parole, according to the agency.
District Attorney James Montoya said fentanyl continues to be a deadly scourge throughout the nation. Montoya said Robles chose to distribute a deadly drug for his own benefit, and that choice cost Jesus Hernandez his life.
How House Bill 6 Changed the Law
Texas House Bill 6 was passed during the 88th Regular Legislative Session and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 14, 2023, taking effect that September 1, according to the Office of the Governor of Texas. The law amended Section 193.005 of the Texas Health and Safety Code to require medical certifiers to record “Fentanyl Poisoning” or “Fentanyl Toxicity” on official death certificates when toxicological evidence confirms lethal opioid levels, per the Texas Legislature Online. Beyond authorizing murder charges, the law also increased state penalties for manufacturing or delivering fentanyl, raising offenses involving 200 to 400 grams to 10 years to life in prison and offenses over 400 grams to 15 years to life.
Lawmakers passed the measure amid a surge in overdose deaths statewide. Drug-poisoning deaths in Texas increased 68 percent from 2019 to 2024, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, contributing to drug poisoning becoming the leading cause of injury death for Texans aged 24 to 69 by 2023.
Part of a Broader Statewide Push
Robles' case follows a pattern of federal prosecutions in the region before HB 6 gave state authorities a murder statute to work with. In October 2023, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas obtained a 20-year federal prison sentence for an El Paso man who sold a counterfeit M-30 fentanyl pill that caused a near-fatal overdose, following a separate FORT investigation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Smuggling narcotics through internal body concealment can pose detection challenges for border and jail security alike.
House Bill 6 has been used in other Texas prosecutions, including a Collin County case, Hoodline previously reported. Robles' sentencing adds West Texas to that list of jurisdictions applying the 2023 law to hold fentanyl suppliers criminally responsible for the deaths their drugs cause.
