Ex-Navy sailors plead guilty to selling fentanyl to San Diego-based sailors

City News Service
Posted

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Two former U.S. Navy sailors who sold fentanyl to San Diego-based servicemembers, including one who suffered a fatal overdose, pleaded guilty today to federal charges.

Bailey A. Szramowski, 25, and Johnnese H. Poomaihealani, 29, are slated to be sentenced later this year for selling counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl to active-duty servicemembers, including during deployments, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors say that in late 2022, Szramowski sold one sailor 10 pills. The victim, who was assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln, later overdosed and died of acute fentanyl intoxication.

Ten days later, Szramowski sold more pills to another sailor while being aware of the first sailor's death, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

After that sailor was later hospitalized for a suspected overdose, from which he recovered, prosecutors allege Szramowski and Poomaihealani told him to tell police he got the pills from the sailor who died.

The defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and are set to be sentenced in December.