Mesa police use new state law to arrest suspect for deadly drug overdose
MESA, AZ (AZFamily) — For the first time, Mesa used a recently passed state law to arrest a drug dealer who is responsible for a man who overdosed on fentanyl, officials said on Thursday.
According to police, 34-year-old Cruzita Leon was arrested on multiple charges, including the sale of lethal fentanyl, after the death of 49-year-old Todd Gordon. The new law was passed last year and went into effect in November. It makes selling a drug containing fentanyl that leads to the death of another person a class 2 felony.
Investigators said Gordon was found unconscious at a home on Emlita Avenue, near Hawes Road and Southern Avenue, on Nov. 27. He was taken to the hospital, where he later died on Dec. 1. His cause of death was a fentanyl overdose, investigators said.
Police said they later found text messages between Gordon and Leon about buying fentanyl that were sent on the day Gordon was found. Gordon agreed to pay $330 for five grams of fentanyl powder, according to court paperwork.
He reportedly went to her place to pick up the drugs and got back to his house around 9:30 p.m. Gordon was found unconscious in the driveway, court records said. Police said their cellphones’ locations put them together around 7:30 p.m. at Leon’s house, where they said they would meet.
Before her March arrest, court paperwork said Leon sold fentanyl powder several times to undercover officers in February.
Leon was found in the area of 35th Avenue and Van Buren Street in Phoenix and booked into jail on Wednesday for multiple felonies. She’s being held on a $500,000 bond. She declined to speak to police.
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