PORTLAND, OR – Manuel Antonio Souza Espinoza, 27, a Mexican national in the U.S. illegally and living in Portland, was sentenced today to just over 13 years in federal prison plus three years of supervised release for distributing the fentanyl that resulted in the death of a Portland teen. Espinoza was also convicted of having a gun he used during a drug trafficking crime.
According to court documents, the investigation that led to Espinoza’s arrest began after the death of a Portland teenager, 16-year-old Griffin Hoffmann, a sophomore at McDaniel High School, who consumed counterfeit “M30″ Oxycodone pills made with fentanyl on March 7, 2022. The investigation revealed that Espinoza, who was well known as a “high-volume Portland area drug dealer,” was part of the supply chain for those counterfeit pills. On March 31, 2022, using a confidential informant, investigators arranged to buy 1,000 pills from Espinoza. When Espinoza showed up to the location where the sale was to take place, he was immediately arrested on federal charges. Investigators located and seized the 1,000 pills in Espinoza’s vehicle along with a loaded .40 caliber handgun with extended magazine.
Espinoza pleaded guilty to the charges in March of this year, acknowledging his role in the deadly overdose as part of the plea agreement…