Alizon Lopez’s life came to a tragic end on May 21, 2022 when she was found unresponsive in her cell at 2:30 p.m. Her cellmate, who discovered her condition shortly after she had completed her work shift in the jail’s laundry, immediately raised the alarm. Without wasting a moment, jail deputies and nursing staff sprang into action, performing CPR and urgently calling for an ambulance. Despite their best efforts, Lopez could not be revived, leaving behind a devastating loss.
Her cellmate discovered Alizon Lopez unresponsive in her cell at 2:30 p.m. on May 21, 2022, shortly after she finished her work shift in the jail’s laundry. Jail officers and nursing staff quickly started CPR and phoned for an ambulance. But Lopez never recovered.
Months later, the Mesa County Coroner’s Office determined Lopez died from fentanyl toxicity. It described her death as an accident.
Mesa County Jail jailed the 28-year-old Grand Junction mother of four on drug-related charges.
By December, federal prosecutors in Denver, with the assistance of a Grand Junction grand jury, had determined that five people—a longtime drug dealer in Arizona, three Colorado residents who purchased the fentanyl pills from him, and one inmate through whom the drug reached Lopez—were responsible for his death.
All five are currently serving federal prison terms.
Jeremiah Robinson was the initial source. According to a case filing, Robinson, a 44-year-old Phoenix resident and six-time convicted offender, used the CashApp handle “$jackjames1996.” He operated out of an old white van that had flaking paint on it.
On May 7, 2022, he met Efrain Velez in a Phoenix park, as he had done several times before. Velez, a 36-year-old from Denver, bought hundreds of blue tablets. According to authorities, the pills were marked with an “M” on one side and a “30” on the other, similar to Mallinckrodt, Inc.’s Oxycodone pills.
However, the M30 pills delivered to Colorado, including the ones Velez received, were counterfeit and contained fentanyl, making them extremely dangerous. It is unclear from the case documents whether Velez was aware of the fentanyl content in the pills.
Velez had his girlfriend, Vanessa Vasquez, 40, from Denver, by his side on this day. They were also joined by Anna Munday, 30, from Clifton, a woman they had recently become friends with and agreed to involve in their drug dealing activities.
After crossing the state line into Colorado the following day, they were pulled over by the authorities. While coming to a stop, Velez and Vasquez discreetly hid hundreds of fentanyl pills inside their bodies. Meanwhile, additional drugs were found in the vehicle, leading to the arrest of the three individuals.
Velez was unsuccessful in concealing his stash. As stated in his plea agreement, a number of pills accidentally dropped from his pants leg while he was being interviewed by the police. Subsequently, he required immediate medical attention to address the undisclosed quantity of pills still inside his body.
Vasquez, however, chose to keep her secret to herself. Both she and Munday were eventually taken to the Mesa County Detention Center, where they soon teamed up with Karlie Locke, a 31-year-old woman from Clifton who had a prior history of being incarcerated at the jail since 2009.
The three women distributed the tablets among the inmates, according to Velez’s plea agreement. Inmates paid for the drugs with money, clothing, and stuff from the jail commissary.
Vasquez handed over the crushed fentanyl pills, wrapped in a yellow paper note, to Lopez and her cellmate twelve days after they entered his jail. Lopez reportedly consumed half of her share before her laundry shift and finished the rest when she returned, according to case filings.
Robinson, who sold drugs to Coloradans, was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison a year ago. Currently, he is serving his sentence at the Federal Corrections Institute in south Denver (FCI Englewood).
Velez received a 15-year sentence last week, while Munday was handed a 10-year sentence on the same day.
Locke also received a score of 10 previously.
The woman who smuggled the drugs into the jail, Vasquez, was sentenced to the shortest term – nine years.
“Jeremiah Robinson valued the profit from his drug trade over the lives of his customers,” Acting United States Attorney for the District of Colorado Matt Kirsch stated in a press release. “Wherever you operate, if you sell drugs that make their way into Colorado, our office will find you and hold you accountable.”
The investigation received support from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson chose not to provide any comments or details regarding the case and the sentences. The reason given for this decision was pending litigation.