Woman pleas guilty to selling fentanyl that led to death

SEATTLE — A Mount Vernon woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl in Whatcom and Skagit counties that led to two overdoses, including the death of a Bellingham 17-year-old in 2019.

Rosaliana Lopez-Rodriguez, 22, faces five to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle, prosecutors said in a press release, the Bellingham Herald reported.

Court records say the Bellingham boy died of a fentanyl overdose in November 2019. Lopez-Rodriguez and her alleged supplier, Giovanni Alejandro Nunez, 21, were charged in December 2019 with possession of narcotics with intent to distribute.

Investigators found a whole and a partial pill near the victim. The pills were designed to look like oxycodone but they were tainted with fentanyl.

Similar pills had been linked to other overdoses and deaths in the Puget Sound region, including a 17-year-old friend of the Bellingham victim, who nearly died after smoking one of the pills Nov. 1, 2019.

Lopez-Rodriguez knew of that near-fatal overdose when she sold the victim the pills eight days later, prosecutors said. As part of her plea agreement, Lopez-Rodriguez admitted to selling fentanyl pills to an undercover officer, according to the release. Lopez-Rodriguez said she got the pills from Nunez.