Teenage 'drug dealer,' 16, is arrested after 12-year-old San Jose girl dies from fentanyl overdose after buying Oxycodone pill laced with the drug: Friends filmed the child snorting the crushed pill before she passed out
- Dalilah Guerrero, 12, took part of a pill she believed was painkiller Percocet
- She was with two other teens when she bought it; They filmed her crushing it up
- But the drug was laced with fentanyl - causing her to have a fatal overdose
- She was taken to a nearby hospital but was declared dead in November 2020
- A boy, 16, described as a 'drug dealer,' has now been charged with her murder
A teenage 'drug dealer' from San Jose has been charged with the murder of a 12-year-old girl who died after overdosing on fentanyl she unknowingly bought from him in 2020.
The boy, 16, was arrested on Tuesday, according to the Santa Clara District Attorney's Office.
He allegedly sold a pill to Dalilah Guerrero, 12, who believed it was the painkiller oxycodone, sold under the brand name Percocet. She died after snorting about three-quarters of it on November 14, 2020, prosecutors say.
Two teens filmed a video of Dalilah lining up the crushed pill to she could snort it. She passed out and began snoring, a telltale sign of fentanyl overdose. She was rushed to the hospital but was later pronounced dead.
Her mother, Maria Guerrero, called the drug dealer's arrest 'justice' in an interview with Bay Area station KGO.
A translator said: 'The day her daughter passed away someone took a photo when she was laying in the car. Someone even sent her a message saying that they were considering dropping her off or even tossing her to a river.'
Dalilah Guerrero, 12, died in November 2020 after snorting three-fourths of a pill that was actually the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl
Authorities have arrested a 16-year-old drug dealer who allegedly sold her the 'M-30' pill
A translator for Dalilah's mother, Maria Guerrero (above), said, 'Someone even sent her a message saying that they were considering dropping her off or even tossing her to a river'
Dalilah became the youngest person to fatally overdose from fentanyl in Santa Clara County in 2020, according to the DA's office.
In a breakthrough in the case, prosecutors have now arrested a 16-year-old boy who they described as a 'drug dealer.'
The boy's name was not released as he is a minor, but is he being charged with murder. It is believed he will be tried as a juvenile.
Investigators looking into the suspect's Google Photos account said there were screen shots of public service warnings over fentanyl overdoses that predated the girl's death.
Guerrero's mother 'was counting down the days and didn't know that there was going to be justice and today there is justice,' her translator said.
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According to prosecutors, in November 2020, Dalilah was with two other teenagers when she contacted the suspect and bought an 'M-30' pill.
The group videoed her lining up the crushed pill, which she then snorted.
They say she then passed out and began snoring, a 'telltale sign of a fentanyl overdose'.
She was rushed to the Regional Medical Center in San Jose. She was declared dead.
Her family said Dahlilah 'was loved by many people.'
Deputy District Attorney Donald Shearer said the girl died after consuming three-quarters of a single pill that she believed was Percocet.
Dalilah was with two other teenagers when she contacted the suspect and bought an 'M-30' pill, prosecutors say. The group videoed her lining up the crushed pill before snorting it
Dalilah was with two other teenagers when she contacted the suspect and bought the pill
Guerrero's mother 'was counting down the days and didn't know that there was going to be justice and today there is justice,' her translator said.
'She was clearly looking to put her mind in a different place,' Shearer told KTVU. 'She was not looking for the dangerous effects of fentanyl.'
The prosecutor added: 'Unfortunately, what your drug dealer tells you you're getting and what you get are often two different things.'
Shearer said of the boy: 'He isn't some innocent victim in this.
'He's someone that knew that he could obtain these pills, and when he passed them off on a 12-year-old girl, he consciously disregarded life.'
'She was clearly looking to put her mind in a different place,' Deputy District Attorney Donald Shearer told KTVU. 'She was not looking for the dangerous effects of fentanyl'
Fentanyl is approximately 50 to 100 times more toxic than morphine, prosecutors said. Just a few grains can cause a fatal overdose.
Illicit fentanyl is sometimes pressed into pills made to look like other prescription pills (like oxycodone, hydrocodone, Xanax, and others).
In Santa Clara County, fentanyl is especially prevalent in fake generic pills, with such street names as 'M-30s', 'M-box-30s', 'pressed blues', 'blues', and 'Oxy'.
The DA's Office says this is the second time they have charged a drug dealer with murder after a fatal overdose.
A San Jose man is facing a murder charge after selling a fatal opioid over Snapchat to a Santa Clara 18-year-old in 2020.
What is fentanyl and why is it so dangerous?
Fentanyl was originally developed in Belgium in the 1950s to aid cancer patients with their pain management, but has since found itself at the centre of a drug death crisis.
Given its extreme potency - 50 to 100 times more so than morphine - it has become popular amongst recreational drug users.
However because of this it can be significantly easier to take a fatal overdose and die from fentanyl.
Overdose deaths linked to synthetic opioids like fentanyl jumped from nearly 10,000 in 2015 to over 56,000 in 2020 - surpassing common opioid painkillers and heroin for the first time.
And drug overdoses more widely killed 92,000 people in the US in 2020 – a record driven by fentanyl.
It is often added to heroin because it creates the same high as the drug, with the effects biologically identical.
In America, fentanyl is classified as a schedule II drug - indicating it has a strong potential to be abused and can create psychological and physical dependence.
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