SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A Sacramento man pleaded guilty on Thursday to shipping hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills across the country, often hidden inside of children’s toys.
The United States Department of Justice says that 36-year-old Marcus Miller admitted to 15 counts of drug trafficking offenses and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
According to court documents, Miller and his fellow conspirators had been shipping the fentanyl pills around the country for more than a year.
Law enforcement seized packages on several occasions and found fentanyl pills that were often found to be concealed inside children’s toys.
In total, law enforcement seized approximately 450-thousand fentanyl pills connected to the conspiracy through the seized shipments and search warrants that were executed.
Based on additional evidence, law enforcement estimates that members of the conspiracy shipped more than 1 million fentanyl pills to customers in several different states.
The Department of Justice says that during searches that were carried out connected to the conspiracy, agents found hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills, more than $80-thousand in cash and 17 firearms. Some of the pills and a firearm were hidden inside a secret compartment in Miller’s vehicle.
Miller is prohibited from possessing firearms because of prior felony convictions that include burglary, carrying a loaded firearm, carrying a loaded concealed weapon and convictions in 2009, 2017 and 2020 of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Miller is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Daniel J. Calabretta on October 8, 2026.
The Department of Justice says that Miller faces a mandatory sentence of at least 10 years in prison, a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison, and a $10 million fine.
The United States Department of Justice says the case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion.
The task force is a partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.
The task force directs United States law enforcement toward identifying, investigating and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations.
The task force places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children.
HSTF Sacramento is composed of agents and officers from Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, the Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
The Sacramento Police Department, the Folsom Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Citrus Heights Police Department assisted in the investigation.