Murrieta Man Suspected In Wildomar Fentanyl Death

SOUTHWEST RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A 27-year-old man suspected of supplying a fatal dose of fentanyl to a Wildomar resident was being held Friday on $1 million bail.

Alexander Dimitrios Magos of Murrieta was arrested Thursday on suspicion of second-degree murder following an 18-month Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation into the death of 32-year-old Shane Carlin.

Magos was booked into the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.

According to sheriff's Sgt. Ryan Marcuse, on the afternoon of May 6, 2021, patrol deputies were summoned to the 23000 block of Peggy Lane, just east of Interstate 15, to investigate reports of an unconscious man in a residence.

Deputies and paramedics arrived within minutes and discovered Carlin "not breathing," Marcuse said.

Carlin was taken to nearby Inland Valley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

An autopsy "determined Carlin was a victim of fentanyl poisoning," Marcuse said.

The sheriff's Overdose Death & Narcotics Unit took over the investigation, eventually gathering sufficient evidence to identify Magos as the person "responsible for selling the fentanyl that killed Carlin," Marcuse said.

How the defendant and victim knew one another was not disclosed.

Magos was taken into custody without incident at his residence on Mountain Pride Drive Thursday morning.

Background information on Magos was unavailable.

District Attorney Mike Hestrin said last week that since February 2021, just over 20 people countywide have been charged with murder in connection with alleged fentanyl poisonings.

Sheriff Chad Bianco said there have been 338 fentanyl-related deaths this year. In 2021, there were just over 400 — a 200-fold increase from 2016.

Statistics published in May by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed there were roughly 108,000 fatal drug overdoses in 2021, and fentanyl poisoning accounted for over 80,000 of them.

The synthetic opioid is manufactured in overseas labs, including in China, and according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, it's smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by drug cartels. The substance is 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without the user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.

Riverside County began a public awareness campaign, "The Faces of Fentanyl," on Oct. 20, emphasizing the perils of fentanyl use. The campaign web portal, www.FacesOfFentanyl.net, offers resources, including substance abuse counseling options, that are available to residents countywide.