FAIRFAX, Va. — Editor's Note: The video above originally aired on May 6, 2022.
A 36-year-old man was sentenced by a judge Tuesday to 22 years in prison for distributing a counterfeit pill laced with fentanyl, leading to the death of a 29-year-old woman.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis announced the sentencing of the man, identified as Julian Velasquez of Lorton, in a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Police did not reveal the name of the 29-year-old woman who died by overdose, but investigators refer to her as "E.M." in a news release.
According to the statement from Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD), E.M. flew from California to visit and stay with Velasquez on Aug. 8, 2020.
Investigators believe that sometime between the evening of Aug. 8, 2020 and the morning of Aug. 9, 2020, Velasquez gave E.M. a counterfeit Xanax pill that was laced with fentanyl.
Velasquez found E.M. unconscious on Aug. 9, 2020 and instead of calling 911 for help, Davis says he called 27-year-old Enoel Comsti of Vienna — a "drug customer" and friend of Velasquez — to help him get rid of evidence from the scene. Police also allege that before Comsti arrived, Velasquez sold heroin to another customer out of his house.
FCPD says Velasquez packed up "evidence of drug use and distribution, to include drug paraphernalia and narcotics" and Comsti started driving Velasquez to his storage unit. At some point, Comsti had an issue with his car and Velasquez walked the rest of the way to the unit to drop off the drug-related evidence, police said.
Velasquez then returned to his home and called 911 for medical assistance but provided inaccurate information about E.M.'s condition as well as the circumstances leading up to her death, FCPD says. He also "denied the possibility of E.M. suffering from a drug overdose," investigators say.
When medics arrived on the scene, police say they found E.M. dead in Velasquez’s bedroom.
The FBI's Washington Field Office Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Thibault told reporters Wednesday that Velasquez admitted to giving narcotics to many others who also suffered from overdoses. FCPD identified "M.S." and "K.M." as having died from fatal overdoses from drugs given by Velasquez in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Police say Comsti was also sentenced to 21 months in prison after he "pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting tampering with evidence."
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Jessica Aber told reporters Wednesday that "too many details of this case are becoming more and more common."
"We have a pill epidemic," she said, noting sometimes the dealers realize the drugs they are distributing are laced with fentanyl and sometimes they don't.
It can be "sprinkled on" common drugs like marijuana, Xanax, Adderall and more, Thibault said.
According to Aber, data from 2021 indicates that fatal overdoses from synthetic opioids are outpacing deaths from cocaine and meth and it only takes 2 milligrams of fentanyl to kill someone. The phenomenon is an issue that crosses lines of age, gender, race, socioeconomic and more.
Thibault said that eventually any drug bought on the street or on the dark web could potentially be laced with fentanyl.
"We want to warn people in our communities that if you are buying drugs on the dark web you are potentially playing Russian Roulette," he said.
Fairfax County offers free "REVIVE!" community classes through Chris Atwood Foundation that trains people on what to do and what not to do in an overdose situation. The classes also train people on how to administer naloxone which can reverse the effects of an overdose.
Anyone who needs help is urged to call 911 during times of emergency of the Fairfax Detoxification Center at 703-502-7000 which is available 24/7.