A former Long Beach, California, first responder was sentenced on June 14 to over 29 years in federal prison for selling fentanyl to two coworkers, which resulted in one’s death, authorities said.
Cruz Noel Quintero, 43, of Long Beach, was found guilty in September 2022 on counts of distributing fentanyl resulting in death, possessing machine guns and unregistered firearms, maintaining a drug-involved premise, and possessing firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, according to a June 14 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Quintero operated a reckless and callous drug trafficking business that repeatedly endangered people’s lives and ultimately killed [the victim],” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum.
Quintero—who previously worked as an emergency medical technician at a Long Beach hospital—shipped cocaine, methamphetamine, and other drugs across the country and distributed them out of a Long Beach residence, according to the indictment.
In May 2019, he sold a white powder, which he claimed to be cocaine, for $100 to a now former nurse in the parking lot outside the hospital’s emergency room, authorities said.
The nurse and her partner, a volunteer firefighter, consumed the substance and both passed out, not knowing it was fentanyl, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. One of the victims later was pronounced dead.
According to the indictment, toxicologists testified that fentanyl was the only drug found in the victim’s blood, and doctors confirmed the death was due to fentanyl toxicity.
After it was determined Quintero sold the fentanyl to the nurse, authorities searched two residences in Long Beach with which he was associated and discovered 13 firearms—including two machine guns, two short-barreled assault rifles, and nine other guns, some of which were loaded, according to the indictment.
One of the locations, which he used as his base of operations, was scattered with equipment, including over 10 pounds of cutting agents and a hydraulic press for cocaine brick manufacturing, according to the court document.
Additionally, Quintero testified that he shipped cocaine and methamphetamine to drug dealers in Minnesota, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“For at least a year, [Quintero] shipped kilos of cocaine and pounds of methamphetamine out of state, and sold poor-quality, adulterated drugs to unsuspecting buyers, all while guarding his drug-distribution outpost in Long Beach with machine guns and short-barreled rifles,” prosecutors said.
Quintero has been in custody since the fatal overdose.
He was sentenced to 352 months in prison by United States District Judge Christina A. Snyder.
