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Agari Reyes-Sillero, a 34-year-old Mexican national, got into a cooperator’s car in with the multi-colored pills packed into four protein powder containers on Feb. 5, 2023, a complaint signed by a DEA agent alleges.
She expected to be paid $400,000 in return, the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan says.
Members of a task force comprised of DEA agents, the NYPD and the New York State Police then rushed the car.
Damian Williams, who is the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, called fentanyl “one of the deadliest drugs on the planet.”
The pills that Reyes-Sillero was carrying “were bright and colorful, which obscured their true danger,” the US attorney said.
“Analysis indicates that 60% of trafficked fentanyl pills on the street contain lethal doses,” DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Frank A. Tarentino III said. “Therefore, 30,000 deadly doses were removed from circulation (in the task force operation).”
Reyes-Sillero had been recorded in phone and WhatsApp exchanges discussing the sale of the rainbow-colored “buttons” with the unidentified cooperator, the federal complaint filed by DEA Special Agent Richard Ruscica says.
She then traveled to New York City, apparently from Arkansas, to deliver the drugs, he added.
The next day, the cooperator told Reyes-Sillero of being unable to meet while offering to send an employee to the previously discussed location, according to the complaint.
Reyes-Sillero then sent the cooperator a photo of the pills, as well as a video of someone opening the packaging, it alleges.
Members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force said they watched as Reyes-Sillero carried the tubs to the car.
They moved in once the cooperator gave a signal that the deal was done.
The four tubs each contained 50 or so plastic bags that each held roughly 1,000 multi-colored pills, the complaint says. Altogether, it says, they weighed about 5.75 kilos -- 12.7 pounds.
Authorities charged Reyes-Sillero with possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl, an offense that in the federal justice system carries a mandatory 10-year prison sentence upon conviction.
They housed her in the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack for two days before she was brought before a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan, who ordered that Reyes-Sillero remain in federal custody as the case proceeds.
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