A New Mexico woman who concealed a deadly dose of fentanyl inside her children's luggage pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal drug crime, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas announced.
Magdalena Silva Banuelos, 47, pleaded guilty to distribution of fentanyl. She faces 12 years in prison under terms of her plea agreement.
Silva Banuelos admitted in plea papers that she gave her ex-husband and the father of her sons the fentanyl that killed him, a news release said.
On May 31, 2022, the woman put her sons, ages 8 and 10, on a flight from Albuquerque to Dallas to visit with their father.
Surveillance footage from the Love Field Airport showed the man pick up the boys from a gate about 9:47 p.m., rifle through their luggage about a half-hour later and enter an airport restroom about 10:26 p.m., the release said.
A few minutes after entering the restroom, the man overdosed and died in the bathroom stall while his sons were nearby.
Shortly after 10:30 p.m., the boys exited the bathroom "visibly distraught," the release said.
Investigators recovered a makeup container from the stall that had more than a gram of fentanyl in it. Silva Banuelos said in plea papers that she packed the drug for her ex-husband to use.
During her January 2023 detention hearing, a prosecutor said Silva Banuelos "used her minor children to mule drugs."
"This case is a double tragedy: A pair of young boys lost one parent to drugs, and the other to the criminal justice system," U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton s "This defendant allowed her two young sons to fly more than 500 miles cross-country with a highly lethal synthetic opioid stashed inside their suitcase, knowing full well how dangerous it was. These boys stood nearby as their father suffered a fatal overdose after ingesting it. The Justice Department will continue to fight until fentanyl is eradicated from our streets."