Redondo Beach man admits to selling fentanyl-laced pills that caused a fatal overdose
Redondo Beach man admits to selling fentanyl-laced pills that caused a fatal overdose
LOS ANGELES — A South Bay man pleaded guilty Monday to selling fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills to a drug dealer whose customer later died from an overdose.
Marcus Michael Takaya Poydras, 36, of Redondo Beach pleaded guilty in federal court in downtown Los Angeles to one count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Poydras admitted having distributed pills that he claimed contained oxycodone, but which contained fentanyl. On Jan. 22, 2020, Poydras sold nearly 90 of the pills to a dealer, who then sold 20 of the pills to the victim for $340 in the parking lot of a mall in Marina del Rey, according to the plea agreement.
The victim later consumed some of the pills, which resulted in the victim’s fatal overdose, prosecutors said.
Poydras further admitted in his plea agreement that, in July 2020, he possessed with intent to distribute various narcotics, including cocaine, as well as a firearm — a .38-caliber revolver — with an obliterated serial number.
Court papers show he obtained the firearm from a law enforcement technician employed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and who was one of Poydras’s drug customers at the time.
In January 2025, prosecutors filed a deferred prosecution agreement with the law enforcement technician, Melvin Ramon Washington, 58, of Carson in which he admitted giving Poydras the revolver and making false statements to the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Poydras also admitted to possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl in January 2021 and to possessing another firearm — a 9mm-caliber semi- automatic pistol — in furtherance of his drug-dealing activities.
U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer scheduled a Sept. 8 sentencing hearing, at which time Poydras will face a penalty of between 20 years and life imprisonment, prosecutors noted.
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