Wethersfield man pleads guilty to fentanyl and oxycodone distribution charge stemming from overdose investigation

Date: Sept. 30, 2024

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Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Jimmy Lassus of Wethersfield, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport to distribution of fentanyl and oxycodone.

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.

Judge Dooley scheduled sentencing for December 23, at which time Lassus faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.

Lassus has been detained since his arrest on April 11, 2024.

This investigation has been 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 Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, Connecticut State Police and the New Haven, Waterbury, East Haven, Branford, West Haven, Ansonia, Meriden, Naugatuck, and Shelton Police Departments.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brendan Keefe and Reed Durham.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.