Officials revealed Monday that a man has been sentenced to almost 11 years in jail after pleading guilty to distributing counterfeit fentanyl-laced pills to a drug dealer who sold them to rapper Mac Miller before the star died of an overdose.
Ryan Michael Reavis, a former West Los Angeles resident, pled guilty last year to a single-count superseding complaint charging him with fentanyl distribution.
According to the US Attorney’s Office, Reavis was sentenced to 131 months in federal prison.
He is one of three persons accused with Miller’s death due to an overdose. According to the US Attorney’s Office, Stephen Andrew Walter, 48, of Westwood, will be sentenced in the coming weeks. Cameron Pettit, 30, of West Hollywood, is the subject of a criminal investigation.
On Sept. 4, 2018, police said, Reavis, who relocated to Arizona in 2019, supplied counterfeit oxycodone tablets to co-defendant Pettit.
According to the Department of Justice, he acknowledged to knowing the tablets contained fentanyl or another banned narcotic.
Pettit provided the fentanyl-laced tablets to the 26-year-old rapper, whose true name was Malcolm James McCormick, shortly after Reavis gave them to him.
At the behest of co-defendant Walter, Reavis reportedly handed the counterfeit tablets to Pettit.
Miller received the drugs two days before his tragic drug overdose on September 7, 2018.
In his Studio City home, the star’s personal aide discovered him unconscious, and paramedics pronounced him dead on the spot.
According to the L.A. County coroner’s findings at the time, the rapper died of an accidental overdose caused by a mix of alcohol and narcotics, including fentanyl.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. Depending on a person’s physical size, tolerance, and previous usage, as little as 2 milligrams can be fatal.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, synthetic opioids like fentanyl are the leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States.