A grand jury has indicted two U.S. Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton, accusing them of aiding a drug ring that provided fentanyl-laced oxycodone pills to another Marine, who was found dead of an overdose in Ventura County in May.
Lance Cpls. Anthony Whisenant, 20, and Ryan White, 22, were arrested Tuesday, according to the U.S. Justice Department. A Marine Corps spokesman said both were transferred from their regiment at the base into the custody of federal agents.
In a statement, a Justice Department spokesman said investigators zeroed in on Whisenant after he allegedly sold the oxycodone pills to an undercover agent multiple times, “often for amounts exceeding $1,000 per buy.”
Prosecutors accused Whisenant of helping setting up a drug deal on May 22 to the Marine, who was found dead the next morning, apparently of a fentanyl overdose. Prosecutors didn’t disclose the identity of the Marine who died.
A total of five suspects were accused of furnishing drugs to Marines at the base, as well as to civilian customers.
Whisenant faces one count of distributing fentanyl. White faces one count of hindering the investigation and helping Whisenant and another suspect avoid arrest.
Along with the two Marines, prosecutors also charged 26-year-old Jordan McCormick on Tuesday, accusing him of operating the ring out of him home in Palmdale, supplying four sellers with cocaine, ecstasy, LSD and oxycodone laced with fentanyl.
The most recent filing replaces an indictment from August that charged two other civilians — 24-year-old Gustavo Solis of Sylmar and 23-year-old Jessica Perez of Pacoima — of acting as drug distributors for the ring.
Solis also faces a weapons charge. Both pleaded not guilty, and are scheduled to stand trial in late October.
In the indictment, the grand jury detailed how the alleged ring operated, which involved McCormick allegedly texting and sending messages over Snapchat to the dealers to coordinate amounts of drugs to sell to buyers.
Because the drug sales and the death did not occur on base, the Marine Corps has handed over most of the investigation to the Justice Department, said 1st Lt. Cameron Edinburgh, a spokesman for Camp Pendleton. But Edinburgh said all three Marines served in the same unit.
“It was off base,” Edinburgh said of the Marine’s death. “He was in the same battalion (as Whisenant and White).”
According to the indictment, McCormick sent a package with 1,000 oxycodone pills to Solis on May 22.
The same day, Whisenant allegedly contacted Solis with an order for 10 pills. Solis allegedly met with Whisenant, White and the other Marine to complete the sale.
The Marine was found dead the next morning, prosecutors said.
Just two days later on May 24, Solis sent Snapchat messages showing a menu of drugs to “an individual defendant Solis believed to be a drug customer, but who was, in fact, an Undercover Agent working with the Naval Criminal Intelligence Service,” according to the indictment.
Whisenant faces 20 years in prison if convicted of the fentanyl distribution charge. White faces 10 years in prison for the abetting charge.
An attorney for Whisenant was unable to comment Tuesday on the charge, but said he had not yet spoken to his client. An attorney for White did not immediately return a request for comment
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