A grand jury in Clark County indicted three men in connection with the trafficking of nearly 45 pounds of fentanyl, an opioid much more potent than morphine. The three men, Jesus Aguayo Jr., David Alexander Estrada, and Ulyses Augurio Lopez-Vazquez, were arrested by Henderson Police Department officers during a sting operation near Sunset Station in the early morning hours of August 27.
During the grand jury proceedings, narcotics officers testified that they found about 213,000 counterfeit pills in a suitcase in the trunk of a Dodge Charger that the three men were in. Authorities believe these pills were being trafficked from Mexico through Arizona, with Henderson as the final destination.
On Tuesday, the grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging each of the three men with trafficking and transporting a controlled substance, as well as conspiracy to violate federal trafficking laws. Records from the Henderson Justice Court show that all three suspects posted $20,000 bail shortly after their arrest.
One officer testified that the operation was “a planned takedown for a large amount of suspected fentanyl pills.” He explained that the sting was part of an effort to remove dangerous fentanyl pills from the streets, given the ongoing opioid crisis. The blue pills were pressed to look like legitimate 30 mg oxycodone M30 tablets.
There was at least one person in another vehicle who fled during the sting. Police did not pursue because the driver was driving recklessly, a detective noted.
Overdose deaths from non-pharmaceutical fentanyl have skyrocketed over the past decade. In Las Vegas, one such victim was 17-year-old Louis Steyer, an aspiring author whose parents found him dead in July 2021.
According to a Drug Enforcement Administration report, there were at least 125,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2023, with nearly 60,000 of those linked to fentanyl.
