Five sentenced for delivering fentanyl that killed Colorado inmate

Prison sentences were handed out Wednesday to the last of five people involved in the fatal fentanyl overdose of a Colorado inmate. The pills that killed her were smuggled into the jail inside another woman's body. 

Alizon Lopez was found unresponsive in her cell at 2:30 p.m. on May 21, 2022 by her cellmate, shortly after she had finished her work shift in the jail's laundry. Jail deputies and nursing staff immediately began CPR and called for an ambulance. But Lopez never recovered. 

Months later, the Mesa County Coroner's Office concluded Lopez died of fentanyl intoxication. It called her death an accident. 

The 28-year-old Grand Junction woman, a mother of four, had been incarcerated in Mesa County's jail on drug-related charges.  

By that December, federal prosecutors in Denver, with the help of a Grand Junction grand jury, declared five people - a longtime drug dealer in Arizona, three Colorado residents who bought the fentanyl pills from him, and one inmate through whom the drug reached Lopez - were responsible for Lopez's passing. 

All five are now serving federal prison terms. 

Jeremiah Robinson was the initial source. Robinson, a 44-year-old Phoenix resident and six-time convicted felon, was known on his CashApp handle as "$jackjames1996," according to a case document. He sold out of an older white van with chipped paint. 

He met Efrain Velez, as he had several times before, in a Phoenix park on May 7, 2022. Velez, a 36-year-old from Denver, purchased hundreds of blue pills. The pills were stamped with an "M" on one side and a "30" on the other, resembling Oxycodone pills manufactured by Mallinckrodt, Inc., per investigators. 

But, like most of the M30s delivered to Colorado, these pills were counterfeit, contained fentanyl, and were lethal. Whether Velez knew the pills contained fentanyl is not a detail contained in the case documents. 

This day, Velez was accompanied by Vanessa Vasquez, 40, of Denver, his girlfriend. Another woman whom the pair had recently befriended and agreed to include in the drug dealing was also with them: Anna Munday, 30, of Clifton.  

After the three crossed the state line into Colorado the next day, they were pulled over. As they were stopping, both Velez and Vasquez inserted hundreds of fentanyl pills inside themselves. Other drugs remained in the car, and the trio was taken into custody. 

Velez was not successful in hiding his stash. According to his plea agreement, several pills fell from his pants leg during a police interview. Later that day, he received emergency medical treatment for the unknown number of pills that remained in his body.

Vasquez, though, kept her secret. She and Munday were booked into the Mesa County Detention Center. Once inside, they joined forces with Karlie Locke, a 31-year-old Clifton woman with a history of stays at the jail since 2009. 

The three women dealt the pills among the jail population, according to Velez's plea agreement. Inmates paid them for the drugs with money, clothing, and items from the jail's commissary. 

Twelve days after the fentanyl pills entered the jail inside Vasquez, they were passed to Lopez and her cellmate, crushed and inside a yellow paper note. Lopez reportedly consumed half her share before her laundry shift and finished the rest when she returned from it, according to case documents.

For selling the drugs to the Coloradans, Robinson was sentenced a year ago to 19 years and seven months in prison. He is currently housed at the Federal Corrections Institute in south Denver (FCI Englewood). 

Velez was sentenced last week to 15 years. The same day, Munday received 10. 

Previously, Locke was given 10 as well.

Vasquez, the woman who smuggled the drugs into the jail, received the least amount of time - nine years. 

"Jeremiah Robinson valued the profit from his drug trade over the lives of his customers," Acting United States Attorney for the District of Colorado Matt Kirsch stated in a press release. "Wherever you operate, if you sell drugs that make their way into Colorado, our office will find you and hold you accountable."  

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency contributed to the investigation. 

A spokesperson for the Mesa County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the case and the sentences. She cited pending litigation as the reason.