CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — Two Corpus Christi brothers have been sentenced to prison for manufacturing and selling fentanyl laced pills disguised as pharmaceutical-grade pain medications, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas.
40-year-old Chad Williams Wesevich and his brother, 41-year-old Jamie Wesevich, pleaded guilty in August of 2023 to conspiracy to manufacture and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, conspiracy to commit money laundering and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
The brothers were sentenced 35 years total - 30 years each on the drug and money laundering charges and an additional 5 years each on the firearm charge, the release states.
During the sentencing, the court noted the brothers had a network of friends and family who had written supportive letters requesting leniency, but that those letters must be tempered against the facts that people had overdosed on these pills.
“We can’t get those people back,” Judge Morales said.
From 2017 to 2021, the Wesevich brothers sourced out foreign equipment and materials to manufacture pills disguised as known pain medications such as hydrocodone. The equipment included two industrial pill presses that was capable of producing 9,000 pills per hour.
The fake hydrocodone pills were then distributed via a network of trusted associates throughout Corpus Christi and the surrounding areas.
According to the release, DEA agents linked the pills produced by the Wesevich brothers to several overdoses, both fatal and non-fatal.
During the investigation, tens of thousands of counterfeit hydrocodone pills containing over 1,500 grams of fentanyl, pill presses, pill dies, vacuums, separators and other tools were seized. Law enforcement also seized seven vehicles, five houses, seven guns and $350,000 in cryptocurrency and bulk cash, the release states.
“Synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, account for almost 70% of drug overdose deaths in the United States, and Corpus Christi is no stranger to this new epidemic,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said. “The dismantling of this deadly drug trafficking organization, including the seizure of two industrial fentanyl pill presses, has made Corpus Christi a better and safer place to live.”
The brothers were arrested in May 2022 and have been in custody ever since, pending their transfer to a prison facility to serve out their sentence.
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