A Sylmar man will be sentenced to at least two decades in federal prison after he pleaded guilty on Friday to selling counterfeit oxycodone pills to a U.S. Marine at Camp Pendleton, who later died of an overdose, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Gustavo Jaciel Solis, 25, pleaded guilty to charges of participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy and distributing fentanyl resulting in death, the DOJ said in a press release.
Solis, an active-duty Marine at Camp Pendleton and two others were charged in 2020 with “being part of a ring that distributed narcotics to civilians and members of the United States Marine Corps” using Snapchat and the United States Postal Service, the release said.
Aside from the fentanyl-laced pills, Solis also sold LSD, MDMA and cocaine, prosecutors said.
Solis, who has been in federal custody since his July 29, 2020, arrest, is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 17, and he faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison on the fentanyl charge, and potential life sentences for each drug charge.
Solis’ codefendants — the Marine and two others, as well as another Marine who was later added to the indictment for “allegedly attempting to hinder law enforcement’s apprehension” of two defendants — will be sentenced or will go to trial in the coming months.
One codefendant, 25-year-old Jessica Sarah Perez of Pacoima, pleaded guilty in January to distributing narcotics, including fentanyl and cocaine, to the ring’s civilian customers. She will be sentenced on May 11.
The other three defendants, 27-year-old Jordan Nicholas McCormick of Palmdale, 22-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony Ruben Whisenant and 24-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan Douglas White, will go on trial June 21.
McCormick, “the lead defendant and the conspiracy’s alleged supplier,” provided the LSD, ecstasy, oxycodone pills and cocaine to the others, prosecutors said.
Whisenant “allegedly aided and abetted the distribution of the fentanyl-laced pills purchased from Solis that resulted in” the overdose death of the victim, identified only by the initials L.M., according to the DOJ.
White is “charged with being an accessory after the fact for allegedly attempting to hinder law enforcement’s apprehension of Whisenant and Solis,” prosecutors added.