Family of victims killed from fentanyl speak out following arrest of 2 Austin-area men

Family members who have lost loved ones to fentanyl are responding after two members of an Austin fentanyl distribution organization have been sentenced in federal court. They’re set to spend more than seven years in prison.

AUSTIN, Texas - Family members who have lost loved ones to fentanyl are responding after two members of an Austin fentanyl distribution organization have been sentenced in federal court. They’re set to spend more than seven years in prison.

An organization consisting of men under the age of 26, distributing fentanyl in the Austin area, will spend time in prison.

"We're getting people younger and younger that are getting into the distribution and sale of these drugs on the federal level," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Marshall said.

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The 10 men, part of the organization, have all been sentenced to anywhere from a year to 15 years in prison.

Michael Bauman, 19, of Austin, sentenced to 12 months
Adi Martinez Marquez, 21, Mexico, sentenced to 14 months
Daemon Garcia, 20, San Marcos, sentenced to 2.5 years
Ezequiel Azmitia-Jimenez, 20, Lockhart, sentenced to 3 years
Andres Ruben Ramirez, 24, Austin, sentenced to 4 years
Marcos Roberto Garcia, 20, Arizona, sentenced to 7.25 years
Matthew Juan, 20, Austin, sentenced to 7.5 years
Christopher Brock, 25, Pflugerville, sentenced to 7.5 years
Fernando Beltran, 22, Austin, sentenced to 15 years
Oliver Garcia, 21, Lockhart, sentenced to 15 years

"In working with all the other law enforcement agencies we worked with to take off a really dangerous group of people selling this drug," Marshall said.

On Monday, 25-year-old Christopher Brock, of Pflugerville, and 20-year-old Marcos Roberto Garcia, were sentenced in federal court in Austin after being arrested in January 2022.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Brock was a courier and dealer of counterfeit oxycodone tablets containing fentanyl, and Garcia purchased the pills from Mexico and helped ship them in the mail from Arizona to Austin.

"This particular organization, imported into the Austin area over a quarter million tablets of counterfeit fentanyl and were distributing that all over. We seized in excess of 100,000 tablets just during our investigation," Marshall said.

"My son was a victim. He chose to take a pill that he thought was a Xanax and that's what took his life. These people are choosing to sell pills knowing that it has fentanyl in it, knowing that it's killing people, we can’t, it can’t happen," Stefanie Turner, who lost her son to fentanyl, said.

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Fentanyl is a powerful opioid, 50 times stronger than heroin. An amount small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil can be deadly.

"Virtually every counterfeit tablet that's sold on the black market contains fentanyl," Marshall said.

Brock was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison and three years of supervised release. Garcia was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and four years of supervised release.

"It’s good to know that these people who are selling these drugs are off the streets because we know that fentanyl is deadly and the increase of death rate since 2019 has gone up 595 percent," Turner said.

Marshall said there are other groups like this one who have been caught.

"We've got a dozen different investigations ongoing. Unfortunately, we have, currently three death cases in the office charging people with distribution causing death, which is a very serious offense. It's 20 years to life offense in the federal system," Marshall said.