‘M30 King of Fresno’ behind fentanyl pill trafficking pleads guilty, prosecutors say
A man who went by the self-proclaimed moniker “M30 King of Fresno” will spend at least a decade in prison after he pleaded guilty Tuesday for selling fentanyl and methamphetamine, federal prosecutors said.
Horacio Torrecillas Urias Jr., 23, of Fresno had been accused of distribution of the potentially deadly drug fentanyl as well as conspiracy and intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert said in a news release.
Torrecillas Urias was one of 18 suspected drug traffickers arrested in March 2022 in a large scale operation involving Fresno County law enforcement and federal agencies.
When announcing the arrests in 2022, Talbert said the arrests followed seven fentanyl-related overdoses in the Fresno area. Four of those overdoses included high school-aged teenagers, and one of those four overdoses happened on a campus during school hours.
Officials said they connected the deaths to counterfeit oxycodone M30 tablets containing fentanyl, which were called “M30s” on the street.
M30s look like small round pills with an M stamped on them and came in light blue or green, officials said.
Torrecillas Urias brought “tens of thousands” of counterfeit M30 pills and other drugs from sources in Mexico, prosecutors said. The other 17 people arrested in what was called Operation Killer High were accused of helping him distribute the pills around California.
During the operation, officers used warrants to intercept packages and search homes, where they found more than 55,000 counterfeit M30 pills, six pounds of fentanyl powder, 10 pounds of methamphetamine, a pound of cocaine, 25 firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, prosecutors said.
Including Torrecillas Urias, 17 of the people arrested in the operation have pleaded guilty, prosecutors said. The only remaining defendant who has not pleaded guilty has a trial later this month.
Torrecillas Urias faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison at his sentencing hearing on Dec. 2, prosecutors said.
