Ryan Michael Reavis has agreed to plead guilty to supplying fentanyl-laced drugs to the man who sold them to rapper Mac Miller before his fatal overdose, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California.
Reavis, 38, allegedly distributed counterfeit oxycodone pills to 30-year-old co-defendant Cameron James Pettit on September 4, 2018. Reavis allegedly gave the pills to Pettit under the guidance of 48-year-old co-defendant Stephen Andrew Walter.
Walter pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of fentanyl on October 26, according to court documents sent to Newsweek by the U.S. attorney's office for the Central District of California.
Reavis admitted to knowing that the pills contained fentanyl or some other controlled substance, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). All three men were arrested and charged in connection to Miller's death. They are currently being held in Los Angeles, where a forthcoming trial is scheduled to be held starting November 16 according to Billboard.
Miller died of a fatal overdose on September 7, 2018, as a result of the fentanyl-laced pills and alcohol, according to the L.A. County coroner's report.
Prosecutors allege that even after Miller's death, all three men continued to sell narcotics "with full knowledge of the risk of their products," said U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna in a press statement.
"It has become increasingly common for us to see drug dealers peddling counterfeit pharmaceuticals made with fentanyl. As a consequence, fentanyl is now the number one cause of overdose deaths in the United States," Hanna said.
Fentanyl has claimed the life of a number of high-profile athletes and entertainers in 2021, including University of Texas linebacker Jake Ehlinger and NFL player Jimmy Hayes in October, and actor Michael K. Williams in September.
Fentanyl is a powerful, synthetic opioid about 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). While natural opioids are derived from the opium poppy plant, synthetic drugs like fentanyl have the same chemical make-up but are made in the lab by scientists.
The drug is mainly used to treat patients who are dealing with severe pain or for those who've undergone surgery.
Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal, depending on a person's body type, tolerance and past drug use.
Synthetic opioids like fentanyl are the primary driver of overdose deaths in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The number of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids—mainly illicitly manufactured fentanyl—climbed 55.6 percent between 2020 and 2021.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice for further comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
