A U.S. Army sergeant stationed at Fort Hood will spend six years in prison for using social media to set up the sale of thousands of fentanyl pills in central Texas. Federal prosecutors linked the soldier to a wave of local overdoses.
During a recent federal court hearing in Austin, 25-year-old Eri Gutberto Parra Lopez was sentenced to six years in federal prison for selling thousands of fentanyl pills to undercover police officers. Parra-Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of fentanyl distribution on April 20.
The criminal complaint previously filed against Parra Lopez revealed that from March 2020 to July 2021, the Austin metro saw a wave of fentanyl overdoses suspected to be caused by illegal prescription pills plus with counterfeit Oxycodone sourced in part by Parra Lopez.
A task force with the DEA had a detective from Pflugerville Police contact Parra Lopez through Snapchat where the man used the nickname “ElEnchufe71,” a reference to plug or dealer. The detective set up drug buys at various locations and purchased eventually thousands of pills containing fentanyl.
Once the DEA knew Parra Lopez was active duty, they sought Defense Department assistance with the case.
During the sales, authorities learned that Parra Lopez’s source was an unnamed Mexican cartel and that one of his contacts had been killed.
Parra Lopez’s drug conspiracy appears to be unrelated to a human smuggling network that had also used soldiers from Fort Hood to move groups of migrants past U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints.
Luisana Moreno is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.