A report from Fox News said that 21-year-old Kaylar Junior Tawan Beltranlap was sentenced to 13 years of prison time on Tuesday.
Beltrantap from San Diego sold fentanyl in the form of counterfeit oxycodone pills. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and can be fatal in trace amounts. It is available in various forms, including blue pills resembling oxycodone, a powerful pain reliever.
He pleaded guilty in July, admitting to using his Instagram account to arrange a drug deal on May 12, 2021, with Clark Jackson Salveron, a 15-year-old sophomore at Coronado High School. Prosecutors said the teenager was discovered dead in his bedroom in his Coronado home the next morning. According to the county medical examiner’s office, the teen died of acute fentanyl intoxication.
Social media was used in the drug deal between Beltantrap and the Salveron. (Photo: CTVNews)
According to the DA’s office, Beltranlap had warned Salveron to take only half a pill because it was “strong as hell.”
A judge said at his sentencing hearing that Beltranlap went for “easy money” with “callous disregard he was putting into the community and into a very young victim.”
Several cases of overdoses in teenagers in California are also suspected to be caused by Fentanyl-laced pills. The police have cited a case of the death of a 15-year-old girl last September 2022 in a high school bathroom in Hollywood.
Shelly Howe, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego, warned the parents, “Drug dealers are using social media to target kids. Parents, be vigilant about checking your children’s social media; it may save their life.”
