GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM) – A Kent County man involved in trafficking heroin and the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl in the Grand Rapids area last year was sentenced this week to 12 years in federal prison.
Miguel Angel Santos of Grand Rapids was arrested in an undercover investigation that netted authorities two pounds of fentanyl that had been transported from New York to Grand Rapids. Investigators also seized four pounds of heroin outside a hotel on 28th Street SE at Kraft Avenue as part of the same investigation.
The seizures and arrests occurred a year ago this week.
U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker ordered Santos to pay a $2,000 fine and serve four years on supervised release once he gets out of prison.
Fentanyl, which is commonly used by addicts in conjunction with heroin, helped push overdose deaths in Kent County last year to a new high.
About 38 percent of the 67 confirmed overdose deaths in Kent County in 2014 were due to heroin or fentanyl, according to numbers from the Kent County Medical Examiner's Office.
Law enforcement seizures of illegal drugs containing fentanyl more than tripled between 2013 and 2014, with more than 3,300 submissions made to state and local police laboratories for analysis last year.
In a sentencing memorandum, defense attorney Craig A. Frederick asked for a term of 8.3 years, calling the drug conspiracy "so inept that it is unlikely that there is even any organized behavior involved at all.''
The 38-year-old father of four "has burned all his bridges to his criminal past and is determined to be the best husband/father/citizen that he can be upon his release,'' Frederick wrote.
In a letter to Judge Jonker, Santos said he has cooperated in the investigation, putting his family at risk because "the information I gave to the government about the Mexican cartel.''
"I know that I was wrong and take full responsibility for my wrong-doings,'' Santos wrote. "I am trying and also plan at making things right in my life from here on out. You will not see me in your courtroom again.''
