Two former Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were sentenced to prison Tuesday for aiding and abetting and distributing pills that contained a mix of oxycodone and fentanyl, according to the Department of Justice.
Twenty-year-old Cpl. Mark M. Mambulao of Evansville, Wyoming, died April 15, 2017.
He had been at a party in Richlands, North Carolina, with Marine Marcos Villegas, 24, of St. Charles, Illinois, when Villegas gave the 20-year-old corporal oxycodone pills that were laced with fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Robert J. Higdon Jr. said in a DOJ press release.
In the early morning after the party Villegas found Mambulao unresponsive. He rushed the Marine to a nearby hospital where Mambulao soon died of a fentanyl overdose and low alcohol content, the DOJ said in October.
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An investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service found pills advertised as oxycodone laced with fentanyl in Villegas’ barracks, the press release said.
Further investigation found that Villegas and Marine Sgt. Anthony Tognietti, 27, of Paradise, California, had purchased the pills from an opioid ringleader Texas over the dark web.
The man, Alaa Mohammed Allawi, was later sentenced to 30 years in prison for “conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl resulting in death or serious bodily injury and using a gun during a drug crime,” the press release said.
Villegas was sentenced to 10 years in prison with three years in supervised release, while Tognietti was sentenced to three years in prison and three years of supervised release for his part in the crime, the press release said.
Both Marines were recently separated from the Marine Corps because of the federal prosecution, the press release said.
Mambulao served as a radio operator with the 2nd Tank Battalion, in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, according to his obituary.
