An Oakland teen became a fentanyl tycoon, feds say. He now blames grandma's cancer diagnosis

"OAKLAND He started selling fentanyl on Bay Area streets as a boy. By age 18, prosecutors say he was directing a multi-state ring that stockpiled the deadly powder by the kilogram, sold ounces of it at at a time, and had ongoing plans to obtain more from the Cartel Jalisco New Generation in Mexico. Now, because of all this, 19-year-old Eldin Miralda Cruz will spend the remainder of his teens and part of his 20s in federal prison."

"They say that after making the dangerous trip, alone, from Honduras to the Bay Area, enrolling at International High School in Oakland, and taking a job at a packaging plant in Hayward, Miralda Cruz got word that his grandma was sick with cancer. That changed everything, a defense sentencing memo says. With little income coming in, he learned that his grandmother in Honduras had been diagnosed with cancer and needed help to pay for her treatment."

Eldin Miralda Cruz began selling fentanyl on Bay Area streets as a boy and by 18 was directing a multi-state ring that stockpiled kilograms, sold ounces at a time, and planned to obtain more from the Cartel Jalisco New Generation. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar sentenced Miralda Cruz to four years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl. Prosecutors said he made hundreds of calls during a DEA wiretap, negotiating deals in Oakland and Portland and directing men in their 20s. Defense attorneys said he immigrated alone from Honduras, enrolled in school, and turned to selling drugs at 16 to help pay for his grandmother's cancer treatment. He was charged in a large-scale DEA investigation that branched into two cases.

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