Mexican national living in Bakersfield sentenced for distributing fentanyl

Tablets believed to be laced with fentanyl are displayed at the Drug Enforcement Administration Northeast Regional Laboratory on October 8, 2019 in New York. …

Tablets believed to be laced with fentanyl are displayed at the Drug Enforcement Administration Northeast Regional Laboratory on October 8, 2019 in New York. – According to US government data, about 32,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2018. That accounts for 46 percent of all fatal overdoses. Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for a range of conditions, has been central to the American opioid crisis which began in the late 1990s. (Photo by Don EMMERT / AFP) (Photo by DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)

by: Miabelle Salzano

Posted: Apr 18, 2022 / 12:41 PM PDT

Updated: Apr 18, 2022 / 12:46 PM PDT

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A Mexican National illegally living in Bakersfield was sentenced to five years in prison Monday for possessing with the intent to distribute fentanyl, according to the U.S. Eastern District Court of California.

On April 7, 2021, Jesus Adrian Pena-Gamez, 33, and co-defendant Carlos Ivan Campana, met in the parking lot of a Bakersfield restaurant to sell to a person 15,000 counterfeit oxycodone M30 pills laced with fentanyl, according to court documents.

Officers arrested Pena-Gamez and Campana during the meet. Law enforcement officers said they recovered about 3 pounds of pills containing a detectable amount of fentanyl Pena-Gamez’s vehicle .

Pena-Gamez plead guilty to the charge in 2021.

Charges are pending against Campana for distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamine on three prior occasions between November 2020 and April 2021, according to the court.

The Kern County Coroner’s Office reported local deaths associated with fentanyl in 2021 were 232, an 85 percent increase over 2020’s total of 125.

Kern County had a total of 492 overdose deaths for all drugs in 2021, according to the coroner.

Fentanyl is turning up not only as a substitute for heroin, but in virtually every street drug. In many cases, users don’t realize that’s what they’re taking.