{"id":117968,"date":"2021-04-01T09:21:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T13:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=117968"},"modified":"2021-04-01T09:21:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T13:21:18","slug":"jury-convicts-woman-in-drug-related-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=117968","title":{"rendered":"Jury Convicts Woman In Drug-Related Death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>LESLIE PAGAN<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A federal jury found a 40-year-old woman guilty of conspiracy to distribute over one kilogram of heroin and a quantity of fentanyl, distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, and eight counts of distribution of heroin or fentanyl. She is facing a minimum mandatory sentence of 20 years, and up to life, in federal prison.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ms. Leslie Pagan<\/strong> had been indicted on August 27, 2020, along with <strong>Jackylin Bonifacio<\/strong> and <strong>Steven Echevarria.<\/strong> An indictment was filed on November 5, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to trial, <strong>Bonifacio <\/strong>pleaded guilty to distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, and <strong>Echevarria <\/strong>pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute over one kilogram of heroin.<\/p>\n<p>According to testimony presented at trial, from January 1, 2016, through September 1, 2020, <strong>Pagan, Echevarria, Bonifacio<\/strong> and others conspired to distribute heroin. <strong>Bonifacio <\/strong>distributed heroin she had received from <strong>Pagan<\/strong> and <strong>Echevarria <\/strong>to heroin users in Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Echevarria<\/strong> initially controlled the supply he obtained from another co-conspirator, but when <strong>Echevarria <\/strong>was incarcerated in 2017, <strong>Pagan <\/strong>took over that role and distributed the heroin to <strong>Bonifacio. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On December 19, 2019, <strong>Bonifacio<\/strong> distributed a substance to the victim. <strong>Bonifacio<\/strong> thought the substance was heroin, but it was actually fentanyl. When the victim used the fentanyl shortly after receiving it from <strong>Bonifacio,<\/strong> the victim collapsed and died.<\/p>\n<p>The Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office investigated the overdose death and identified <strong>Bonifacio<\/strong> as the person who had distributed the fentanyl to the victim. On December 20, 2019, <strong>Bonifacio<\/strong> was arrested and found in possession of 25 baggies of fentanyl, packaged for distribution.<\/p>\n<p>A joint investigation led by the FBI identified <strong>Pagan <\/strong>as <strong>Bonifacio\u2019s<\/strong> supplier. During a series of covert operations, <strong>Pagan <\/strong>distributed fentanyl and heroin to a confidential informant and received payments from that informant. <strong>Pagan <\/strong>was arrested on September 1, 2020, and investigators recovered 97 grams of fentanyl and over $105,000 in currency from her residence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LESLIE PAGAN \u00a0\u00a0 A federal jury found a 40-year-old woman guilty of conspiracy to distribute over one kilogram of heroin and a quantity of fentanyl, distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, and eight counts of distribution of heroin or fentanyl. She is facing a minimum mandatory sentence of 20 years, and up to life, in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88889,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88889"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}