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Two people are facing decades in prison and multi-million dollar fines for trafficking fentanyl into the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, Havre and Great Falls as Montana officials work to contain record-breaking seizures of the synthetic opioid which is now a public health crisis on a national scale.
Chantel Marie Azure, 33, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, while a federal jury convicted 37-year-old Aaron Ramirez Espinoza of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances. The two separate cases involved fentanyl and were heard in U.S. District Court.
“There’s no question that fentanyl is now the number one public safety threat facing Montana. Mexican drug cartels are pushing it across the border, flooding it into our state at an unprecedented rate — and killing Montanans,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a press release earlier this week.
Seizures of fentanyl made by state and federal law enforcement so far in 2022 have dwarfed those of years past. Agents with the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task forces reported 111,611 fentanyl "dosage units" seized, which includes pill-sized doses and loose fentanyl powder, according to a statement from the Montana Attorney General’s Office. Last year ended with 60,577 dosage units seized. Those figures do not include seizures made by state agencies outside of the task force.
Synthetic opioids have contributed to the overall increase in overdoses nationwide between 2020 and 2021, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overdoses from substances like fentanyl went from around 58,000 in 2020 to just over 71,000 the next year.
In Montana, the state crime lab reported 49 fentanyl-linked overdoses last year, per the Attorney General’s Office, up from just four in 2017. Preliminary lab data shows 34 deaths related to fentanyl so far this year. Surges in overdoses have been reported out of Miles City, Helena, Great Falls and Billings throughout 2022. In May, the Blackfeet Nation declared a state of emergency after 17 overdoses and four drug-related deaths occurring in the span of a week within its borders.
In the past two years, county and federal courts have also issued lengthy sentences for those guilty of trafficking the powerful opioid. Most recently, Eric Charles Swan and Elizabeth Ardell Grace Ronshaugen were sentenced in June to eight and four years in prison, respectively. Officers found the two in a vehicle carrying thousands of fentanyl pills, along with meth, cocaine and other drugs on a return trip from Denver. They reached an agreement with federal prosecutors, with both pleading guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute controlled substances.
Azure, who is from Billings, admitted Aug. 15 in federal court to trafficking fentanyl and meth into Havre and the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation. Havre police and federal agents traced a fentanyl purchase to Azure in January 2021, according to court documents. Police stopped Azure in her vehicle. She was riding with two passengers, who were carrying fentanyl pills and meth. Agents were granted a search warrant for Azure’s Facebook account, where they found further evidence of drug trafficking.
She is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 1, and faces up to 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine.
Espinoza, of Washington, was convicted by a federal jury Wednesday of dealing drugs on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation and in Great Falls. Officers identified Espinoza in May 2021 as part of a group of men from Yakima, Washington, who were trafficking drugs into Montana, according to court documents. Police arrested him at a Great Falls gas station a year later. He was carrying meth and two bags of fentanyl pills.
He initially told officers the drugs were for personal use, according to a statement from the Department of Justice, before saying he was planning to meet someone who never showed up. Espinoza said he was “trying to make a living.”
Espinoza is also set to be sentenced Dec. 1, and faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, along with a $10 million fine.
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TUESDAY, Aug. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Methamphetamine is driving an epidemic of drug overdoses in rural America, a new study concludes.
Blue M30 pills (likely manufactured fentanyl pressed into counterfeit pills) were located nearby several of the overdose victims.
A Montana man and woman who pleaded guilty to trafficking meth and fentanyl pills were sentenced to prison time last week.
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