Madison and Rankin Counties’ District Attorney Bubba Bramlett announced that on January 18, 28-year-old Carlos Martinez of Dallas, Texas, pled guilty to trafficking fentanyl.
Judge Steve Ratcliff ordered Martinez to serve ten years day for day in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole.
On April 25, 2022, a Rankin County Sheriff’s Department deputy stopped a Chevrolet Tahoe driven by Carlos Martinez for a traffic violation on Interstate 20. Upon approaching the car, the deputy smelled marijuana.
While looking in the SUV and checking on the female and infant occupants, the deputy saw that the back panel of the front passenger seat was lying on the floor.
Additionally, the deputy observed two large packages wrapped in electrical tape protruding from the altered seat and a few blue M30 pills on the floor.
Further investigation revealed that the packages contained over 10,000 counterfeit blue M30 pills.
The deputy arrested Martinez for trafficking and turned the pills over for analysis to the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory.
They determined that the pills were indeed counterfeit oxycodone that contained Fentanyl.
As a result, a Rankin County Grand Jury indicted Martinez on July 18, 2022, for Aggravated Trafficking.
District Attorney John K. Bramlett, Jr. stated, “Carlos Martinez chose to traffic the very drug I have repeatedly warned our community about −the deadly blue M30 pill.
This pill is passed off as oxycodone but is actually lethal Fentanyl.
Martinez’s actions are precisely how this poison gets into the hands of the citizens of this county, whether they are unsuspecting drug addicts or curious novices. We hope this is the end of Martinez’s criminal behavior and that this sentence will discourage others from choosing to make easy money by trafficking poison in and through our country, state, and county.”
Bramlett added, “We would like to thank the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, the Homeland Security task force, and other officers that were able to get this sizable amount of poison off our streets, thus sparing several lives.
The diligent work of law enforcement shed light on the players in this dangerous enterprise but also enabled our office to secure a conviction against Martinez.”
