On November 18, 2023, Riverside Police Officers responded to the 4200 block of 1st Street in downtown Riverside regarding an adult man found deceased inside a home. The victim, 20-year-old Angel DeLeon, was believed to have overdosed after taking what was thought to be Percocet. Based on the circumstances, detectives from the Robbery–Homicide Unit and Narcotics Unit assumed the death investigation.
Detectives discovered that Angel and his acquaintances used social media to purchase Percocet pills, commonly known as M-30. They picked up the pills from a residence in Rialto. After taking them, Angel was found unresponsive and later pronounced deceased.
The Riverside County Sheriff–Coroner’s Office determined that Angel’s death was caused due to the effects of fentanyl. The pills he had taken were counterfeit Percocet laced with fentanyl.
The investigation into who sold the counterfeit pills to Angel and his acquaintances led detectives to identify 27-year-old Markel Charles Jones of Fontana. Jones was on parole for illegal firearm possession and had been arrested multiple times while on parole for possessing illegal narcotics for sale…