Magdalena Silva Banuelos, 47, of Albuquerque, admitted guilt yesterday to distributing fentanyl, as announced by U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Leigha Simonton.
Silva Banuelos was indicted in November 2022 and entered her guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn. She confessed to providing the deadly dose of fentanyl to her ex-husband, resulting in his death.
The incident occurred on May 31, 2022, when Silva Banuelos sent her two sons, ages 8 and 10, on a flight from Albuquerque to Dallas to visit their father. Surveillance video from Dallas / Love Field Airport shows that her ex-husband picked up the boys from the gate around 9:47 p.m., rifled through their luggage at around 10:17 p.m., and entered the airport restroom at around 10:26 p.m. A few minutes later, he overdosed and died in a restroom stall, just steps away from his sons. At 10:33 p.m., his sons exited the restroom, visibly distraught.
Investigators recovered a Clinique brand makeup container from the scene, containing over a gram of fentanyl. Silva Banuelos admitted to packing the fentanyl for her ex-husband's consumption.
Text messages between him and Ms. Silva Banuelos confirmed that she knew he planned on ingesting the fentanyl and was aware of the risk it posed.
- “Hey you need to be careful,” she wrote a few hours before he died.
- “Yes ma’am. Very slow and easy,” he replied.
- “Just one and then wait you’ll see,” she said. “Just one.”
- “Ok cool. Thank you. Will do,” he said.
- “No passing out on the kitchen floor,” she responded. “Seriously you could od. No dying on the kitchen floor… It’s going to f**k you up!!!
At her January 2023 detention hearing, prosecutors revealed that Silva Banuelos had utilized her minor children to transport drugs, leading to what U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton described as a "double tragedy."
“This defendant allowed her two young sons to fly more than 500 miles cross-country with a highly lethal synthetic opioid stashed inside their suitcase, knowing full well how dangerous it was. These boys stood nearby as their father suffered a fatal overdose after ingesting it. The Justice Department will continue to fight until fentanyl is eradicated from our streets.”, said Simonton.
“Fentanyl not only destroys individuals, it also destroys families. This tragic reality could not be more evident than when looking at the destruction caused by the actions of Ms. Silva Banuelos that terrible day,” said Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chávez of the DEA Dallas Field Division. “The DEA will never stop working to remove this terrible drug and its even more terrible effects from our communities so tragic events like this can never happen again.”
Under her plea agreement, Silva Banuelos faces a 12-year prison sentence.
The Drug Enforcement Administration's Dallas Field Division, along with the Dallas Police Department, led the investigation with support from the Office of the Medical Examiner, Southwest Institute of Forensic Science at Dallas, and Dallas Fire & Rescue.
