LI Man Sentenced To 22 Years After 'Massive, Deadly Fentanyl Scheme' That Killed Retired Police Officer: Feds

LONG ISLAND, NY — A Lynbrook man was sentenced to 22 years in prison after selling fentanyl that killed a retired police officer, federal officials said.

Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Frank Tarentino III, special agent in charge, Drug Enforcement Administration, New York Division, said that on Wednesday, in federal court in Central Islip, Ryan Mueller, 33, was sentenced before United States District Judge Joan Azrack.

The court also ordered Mueller to forfeit $49,394 and two firearms; Mueller pleaded guilty to distributing fentanyl that caused the death of another in December 2024, federal officials said.

As set forth in the indictment and other court filings, over the last several years, Mueller conspired with others to sell several controlled substances, including fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and oxycodone.

In December 2022, a retired police officer died of a drug-related overdose at his residence on Long Island, federal officials said. The investigation showed that the fentanyl that killed the man, which was in a pressed pill made to appear to be oxycodone, was supplied by Mueller, federal officials said.

Law enforcement officers recovered several kilos of fentanyl from Mueller’s residence, as well as multiple pill press parts from a storage facility controlled by Mueller, including powder dryers, blenders, and grinders, authorities said.

In addition, in a February seizure of additional product distributed by Mueller, the DEA recovered about 3.4 million fake pharmaceutical pills, including fake oxycodone that contained fentanyl, fake Xanax pills, more than 300,000 Quaalude pills and about another 600 grams of fentanyl in brick form, officials said. It was the largest seizure of fake pills that the DEA New York division had ever processed, and exceeded the entire New York Division’s totals from all of last year, federal authorities said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Justice, in 2024, about 80,391 people died from drug overdoses, making it a leading cause of injury-related death in the United Stated, federal officials said.

The increase in overdose deaths has been driven in large part by fentanyl, a drug that has been described as 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, officials added. In 2024, about 48,422 people died from a drug overdose involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a figure that was more than 25,000 fewer than the 76,282 synthetic opioid overdose deaths that occurred in 2023, authorities said.

Between 2023 and 2024, overall drug overdose deaths declined about 27 percent, from around 108,000 such deaths in 2023 — and deaths involving opioids fell from around 83,140 in 2023 to 54,743 in 2024, officials added.

"Mueller operated a massive and deadly fentanyl scheme. He built vending machine-sized pill presses, possessed kilos of fentanyl and millions of fake and deadly pharmaceutical pills, and sold the fentanyl that led to the tragic loss of life of a retired police officer," Nocella said. "Although no punishment can make up for a life lost, today’s sentence sends the message that our office and our law enforcement partners will never stop working to stop unscrupulous drug dealers who distribute poison.”"

"Ryan Mueller’s decision to make and distribute fentanyl laced counterpart pills resulted in the death of an unsuspecting user who thought he was taking a legitimate pharmaceutical pill. This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers that counterfeit pills have on our communities," DEA Special Agent in Charge Tarentino," said. "Many of the pills seized and tested in our laboratory contained lethal doses of fentanyl. This wasn’t just a normal investigation; it was a life-saving operation. The DEA and our law enforcement partners will continue to target those poisoning our communities and hold them accountable. While today’s sentencing is a small victory, the harm it has caused this family will be long lasting."