Two men — one from California and one from Texas — have been sentenced to federal prison after admitting to distributing thousands of fentanyl-laced pills nationwide, including to a Fort Collins man and two others who fatally overdosed in 2022.
Last week, 25-year-old Michael Ta of California was sentenced to 21 years and 8 months in federal prison. In a separate hearing, 37-year-old Rajiv Srinivasan of Texas was sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in federal prison, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Both men previously pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and Srinivasan pleaded guilty to an additional count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. Both men admitted in their plea agreements to causing the fatal overdoses of three people because of their drug distribution operation.
Between February and November 2022, the two men engaged in at least 3,800 drug deals with approximately 1,400 customers nationwide, totaling more than 123,000 fentanyl-laced oxycodone pills, more than 20 pounds of methamphetamine, nearly 300 grams of fentanyl powder and heroin, and 27 grams of cocaine, according to the news release.
Federal prosecutors said the men operated accounts on multiple darknet marketplaces, advertising and selling counterfeit oxycodone pills they knew were laced with fentanyl and other illicit drugs.
Srinivasan — who prosecutors identified as the “organizer and leader of the conspiracy” in court documents — ran the online accounts and accepted orders while Ta received the drugs from suppliers, stored the drugs at his residence and mailed the orders out that Srinivasan received, according to the plea agreement documents.
The men used encrypted communication applications to communicate with customers and accepted cryptocurrency as payment to avoid detection by law enforcement, according to court documents.
In their plea agreements, both men admitted to causing the fentanyl-related overdose deaths of three victims, including a 19-year-old Fort Collins man, Noah Morgan. They also admitted to distributing fentanyl-laced pills to two other victims who later fatally overdosed, but they did not admit to directly causing those deaths.
Morgan died of a fentanyl overdose in October 2022 after taking a few of the 50 fentanyl-laced pills shipped to him by Ta and Srinivasan, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said that, in a letter to the court, the Fort Collins victim’s mother “painfully described the harrowing and profoundly traumatic experience” of finding her son dead in their home following his overdose. In another letter written by the victim’s sister, prosecutors said she described him as “a gifted and enterprising student of languages, and a thoughtful and kind member of their family.”
A 51-year-old Florida resident fatally overdosed in August 2022 and a 27-year-old Arkansas resident fatally overdosed in September 2022, both from using drugs sent to them from Ta and Srinivasan, according to court documents.
The two others — a 42-year-old from Michigan and a 31-year-old from California — died from fentanyl overdoses shortly after receiving drugs they ordered from Ta and Srinivasan.
“Each of the five victims leaves behind a family that has been forever and fundamentally changed by the defendant’s actions,” prosecutors wrote in a memorandum ahead of Ta’s sentencing. “His conduct victimized countless others as part of an epidemic of addiction and despair plaguing our district and our country.”
Larimer County behavioral health resources
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Men who sold fentanyl in 5 fatal overdoses nationwide sentenced
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