Convicted Dealer Tied To South Bay Fentanyl Fatality Gets 6 Years: DOJ

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — A convicted drug dealer was sentenced Monday to six years and three months in prison for selling fentanyl that led to the fatal overdose of someone in 2019, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds of the Northern District of California for the Department of Justice.

Matthew Sanchez, 27, pleaded guilty in June to two charges — conspiracy to distribute alprazolam and fentanyl and with the distribution of fentanyl — and admitted selling fentanyl to a fellow Monterey County resident who then died after taking the drug.

Sanchez in his plea agreement admitted to selling drugs between June 2018 and October 2019, including after learning of the victim's death, the DOJ said.

He admitted he conspired with others to sell, and did sell, counterfeit pharmaceutical pills containing fentanyl, according to the DOJ.

The fentanyl-laced pills were called “M30s” and were light blue in color with an imprinted “M” on one side and “30” on the other. Sanchez also conspired to sell and sold bottles of alprazolam (U.S. brand name: Xanax) packaged as “Farmapram,” the DOJ said.

Sanchez described in his plea agreement that during the conspiracy, he bought “Farmapram” pills and M30 pills containing fentanyl from a co-conspirator supplier multiple times. At the peak of the conspiracy Sanchez bought a batch of about 30 bottles of Farmapram and 50 M30 pills containing fentanyl every two weeks from the co-conspirator. The co-conspirator often “fronted” the drugs to Sanchez, providing the drugs first and accepting payment later, after Sanchez had sold them.

Sanchez understood that the M30 pills were from Mexico and admitted that he knew they contained fentanyl. In his plea agreement, he asserted he informed buyers that the M30 pills contained fentanyl, the DOJ said.

Sanchez further admitted in his plea agreement that between August and early September 2019, he sold M30 pills containing fentanyl to a Monterey County resident. Sanchez agreed that the fentanyl he sold to that victim caused the victim to overdose and to die from the fentanyl, according to the DOJ.

The victim is survived by a spouse and a young son.

Sanchez's co-defendant, Francisco Javier Schraidt Rodriguez, a former Mexican pharmacy employee, was also convicted of distributing the fentanyl-laced pills that killed the Monterey County victim and was earlier sentenced to 90 months in prison.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila ordered Sanchez to serve three years of supervision following release from federal prison. Sanchez will surrender on Feb. 8, 2023, to begin serving his sentence, according to the announcement.

— Bay City News contributed to this report