From thr U.S. Attorney:
Man Pleads Guilty to Illegally Importing Suicide Drug into the United States from Mexico
CHICAGO — A man pleaded guilty today in Chicago to a federal drug charge for illegally importing the drug Pentobarbital into the United States from Mexico for use in committing suicide.
DANIEL GONZALEZ-MUNGUIA, also known as “Alejandro Vasquez,” 41, of Puebla, Mexico, pleaded guilty in federal court in Chicago to one count of importing a controlled substance into the United States.
The charge is punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis set sentencing for Sept. 9, 2025.
Pentobarbital, also known as Nembutal, is a drug sold in Mexico for the purpose of euthanizing animals.
In the U.S., Pentobarbital is a controlled substance and has been used in state-sponsored executions.
Gonzalez-Munguia admitted in a plea agreement that from 2012 to 2021, he operated an online drug business that sold and distributed bottles of Pentobarbital to hundreds of individuals in the U.S. and throughout the world, including individuals in Illinois.
Many of the buyers consumed the product and died, the plea agreement states.
The investigation, led by Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, began after a parcel of the drug was intercepted in a Chicago suburb in 2016.
Law enforcement provided assistance to those individuals.
Gonzalez-Munguia admitted that he initially shipped bottles of the drug directly from Mexico and in the manufacturer’s packaging, but thereafter disguised it as a cosmetic product and used intermediaries to transport it into the U.S. before shipping to customers around the world.
The guilty plea was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Daniel Johnsen, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of HSI, and Ruth Mendonça, Inspector-in-Charge of the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Valuable assistance was provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Illinois Army National Guard Counterdrug Program, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, and law enforcement agencies in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kartik K. Raman is prosecuting the case.
