Marco Antonio Tena, 54, just pleaded guilty to trying to move more than 7,000 fentanyl pills in Lubbock. Federal agents tracked him down at a hotel last November, where they spotted him tossing a bag into his truck. When they moved in, they found a pistol on his waistband and, thanks to a drug dog, a stash of pills in the vehicle. Total haul: 7,675 fentanyl tablets—because apparently in Lubbock, we don’t do “small-time.”
The DEA confirmed the pills were the real deal, and Tena admitted he intended to distribute them. In other words, this wasn’t just a “personal use” situation unless his personal use involved singlehandedly knocking out the city’s entire population. He’s now staring at up to 40 years in federal prison, assuming the court accepts his plea.
Tena is still hanging out in the Lubbock County Detention Center, juggling a stack of local charges and a federal detainer, with bonds totaling $123,250. That’s a lot of zeros, but still nowhere near the street value of what he was carrying.
When your side hustle involves enough fentanyl to wipe out a mid-sized town, “I just made a mistake” doesn’t really cut it, does it?
