Source: Office of United States Attorneys
Marc H. Silverman, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JIMMY LASSUS, 40, of Wethersfield, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport to 100 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for distributing fentanyl and oxycodone to an overdose victim.
According to court documents and statements made in court, in the early morning of October 6, 2023, Meriden Police responded to a residence on a report of a suspected overdose and found a 27-year-old woman unresponsive in a bedroom. She was transported to the hospital where she was pronounced deceased. The investigation revealed that for several months before the victim’s death, the victim engaged in numerous drug-related text message conversations with Lassus. The text messages revealed that Lassus supplied the victim with oxycodone, and that he supplied her with fentanyl that she ingested in the hours before she died. The victim stated in text messages and in a journal entry that it was her first time using fentanyl.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the victim’s death to be caused by acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, benzodiazepines, xylazine, and oxycodone.
Lassus has been detained since his arrest on April 11, 2024. On September 30, 2024, he pleaded guilty to distribution of fentanyl and oxycodone.
This investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration New Haven Task Force and the Meriden Police Department, with the assistance of the Wethersfield Police Department. The Task Force includes members from the DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, Connecticut State Police and the New Haven, Waterbury, East Haven, Branford, West Haven, Ansonia, Meriden, Naugatuck, and Shelton Police Departments.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brendan Keefe and Reed Durham.