Federal judge sentences Maricopa man from Cuba to 3 years for fentanyl

A U.S. district judge sentenced a 27-year-old Maricopa man to 33 months in prison after his conviction in federal court for possessing of a pound-and-a-half of fentanyl.

Judge Angela M. Martinez recently handed the sentence to Dairon Jissan Rodriguez-Escalante, a legal permanent resident from Cuba residing in Maricopa.

Rodriguez-Escalante, who was also charged with intent to distribute fentanyl, admitted to the crime in March.

The United States Attorney’s Office in Phoenix said upon completion of his prison term, Rodriguez-Escalante will be placed under supervised release for three years.

Investigations trace back to 2021, when Rodriguez-Escalante was identified via social media as a purveyor of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, specifically blue M30 pills laced with the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a Friday news release.

Undercover operations by agents in the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Drug Enforcement Administration concluded Rodriguez-Escalante sold them the illicit pills on two separate occasions in October and November 2021.

“The counterfeit pills have been part of an ongoing opioid crisis that has claimed too many lives across the nation,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Fentanyl, a drug far more potent than heroin, is often masked within what users believe to be a less dangerous pill, leading to accidental overdoses. Fentanyl cases locally have tripled in the last four years, the Pinal County Attorney’s Office said late last month .

The DEA’s St. Louis office also joined local law enforcement from the Peoria Police Department and analytical support from the Mesa Police Department Forensic Laboratory in the investigation, the release stated.

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