Fort Hood soldier who sold fentanyl to Austin-area cops gets 6 years in prison
A U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Hood was sentenced to six years in prison last week for distributing fentanyl to undercover officers in the Austin area, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Texas.
Eri Gutberto Parra-Lopez, a 25-year-old who was an active-duty Army sergeant at the time, sold about 3,150 tablets of fentanyl to the undercover officers in and around the Austin area between May and July of 2021, according to court documents. In April, Parra-Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of fentanyl distribution.
“Fentanyl is flooding the United States at an alarming rate and our communities in Central Texas are not immune from its devastation,” said U.S. Attorney Ashley Hoff. “This case underscores our resolve to address the dangerous trafficking of fentanyl with all available resources. We will continue to prioritize and prosecute crimes involving this deadly poison and we are thankful for the outstanding work of our local, state and federal partners.”
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Austin police, Pflugerville police, the Travis County sheriff's office and Army investigators all helped with the case, a statement from the U.S. attorney's office said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark H. Marshall prosecuted the case, while Austin-based U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel sentenced Parra-Lopez.
Fort Hood — the Army's largest installation that over the past two decades had been a staging ground for troops deploying to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — came under intense public scrutiny starting in April 2020, after 20-year-old Spc. Vanessa Guillen was reported missing from the post by her family.
Authorities believe another soldier, Spc. Aaron Robinson, beat Guillen to death with a hammer in an armory room on post the morning of April 22, 2020. Investigators say Robinson killed himself as police tried to detain him for questioning, hours after Guillen's remains were finally found.
Guillen — who was sexually harassed in the months before her death, the U.S. Army has confirmed — became more widely known across the country after lawmakers, urged by the soldier's family, used her story to fight for military reforms that would better protect soldiers from sexual assault and sexual harassment.
Although Fort Hood leaders and Army officials have tried to improve conditions to erase the post's reputation for violence and sexual misconduct, several soldiers have still been linked to crimes in the past few years.
Earlier this month, another Army soldier stationed at Fort Hood was accused of murder after authorities found his girlfriend shot to death at an off-post home.
Authorities in Killeen, a Central Texas city adjacent to Fort Hood, responded to the 1100 block of Wales Drive, about 2 miles from the Army post, after receiving a report that a woman had been shot.
Investigators entered the home and found a 34-year-old woman lying on the floor dead from gunshot wounds, a statement from Killeen police said. She was pronounced dead about an hour after she was found.
Military police on Tuesday said they arrested 35-year-old Spc. Michael Moore, an active-duty soldier who, until his arrest, was working as a plumber for the 68th Engineer Construction Company at Fort Hood. Moore was the woman's boyfriend, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Killeen Daily Herald.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Fort Hood soldier sold fentanyl to Austin cops, gets 6 years in prison
