Global Courant
A Southern California first responder who sold a lethal dose of fentanyl to a colleague was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said.
Cruz Noel Quintero, 43, was convicted last September of distributing fentanyl causing death along with multiple felony weapons charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
Prosecutors said at trial that Quintero, a former EMT for a hospital, sold cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs from his Long Beach home and shipped large quantities of narcotics across the country.
FENTANYL OVERDOSE TRAGEDY CLAIM 2 LIVES IN WAIKIKI HOTEL ROOM
Cruz Noel Quintero, 43, was sentenced to more than three decades behind bars for selling fentanyl he claimed was cocaine to a colleague who died the next day. (Fox news)
Global Courant
In 2019, Quintero sold a white powder he claimed was cocaine for $100 to a colleague in the parking lot outside the hospital’s emergency room, prosecutors said. The man was found dead the next day in Las Vegas, and toxicologists later determined he had overdosed on fentanyl.
During the ensuing investigation, police found drug paraphernalia and more than a dozen firearms, including machine guns, at Quintero’s residence, officials said.
Quintero has been detained since his arrest in May 2019.
