STATESVILLE, N.C. — On Wednesday, 44-year-old Marciano Pina Ulloa was arrested in Statesville for possession of a significant quantity of fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid.
Narcotics investigators from the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office and Gaston County Police Department discovered Ulloa with approximately 4 ounces of fentanyl during his arrest.
A subsequent search of a residence in Iredell County revealed an additional 4.8 pounds of the drug, with a street value estimated at $254,000.
Sheriff Darren Campbell highlighted the danger of the drug, stating, “This is an incredibly dangerous drug that is killing people at an alarming rate across our nation. The amount of fentanyl seized in this case is enough to kill over a million people.”
Investigators also seized over one thousand dollars in cash, believed to be proceeds from drug sales, further confirming the scale of Ulloa’s involvement in narcotics trafficking. Ulloa is in the United States illegally, and his immigration status is now under review by federal authorities.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been contacted and will be assisting in this case. To put this into perspective, it takes only 2 milligrams of fentanyl to cause a fatal overdose.
With 1,000 milligrams in a gram, a single gram has the potential to kill 500 people. Based on this calculation, the fentanyl Ulloa was carrying could have killed approximately 1,088,550 people.
Detectives determined Ulloa was delivering fentanyl to multiple locations in Gaston County.
As a result of this investigation, Ulloa has been charged in Gaston County with three counts of trafficking in controlled substances and one count of felony maintaining a vehicle/dwelling for controlled substances.
Additionally, Iredell County narcotics investigators have charged Ulloa with one count of felony trafficking by possession and one count of felony maintaining a vehicle/dwelling for controlled substances.
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