Man sentenced after selling teddy bear stuffed with fentanyl to undercover Gulfport officer

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - A man from Mexico was sentenced to 18 years in prison for a fentanyl bust that happened in Gulfport in June of last year.

Carlos Armando Rabago-Torres, 34, pled guilty in a Harrison County courtroom Monday to one count of trafficking a controlled substance.

The investigation starts back in June 2022, when investigators with the Gulfport Police Department received information from a confidential source that he could obtain a large delivery of oxycodone from a man in Arizona.

Undercover investigators arranged for a delivery at a location in Gulfport, where they set up surveillance of the scene.

An undercover officer met with Rabago-Torres and another man and finalized the transaction. Rabago-Torres then placed a teddy bear, stuffed with more than 5,000 pills, in the passenger seat of the undercover officer’s car.

Investigators then converged and arrested Rabago-Torres and three other accomplices.

According to the Assistant District Attorney, Ian Baker, the pills were sent to the Mississippi Forensic Laboratory, where it was discovered they weren’t oxycodone, but fentanyl.

Under Mississippi’s current parole eligibility statute, a person convicted of drug trafficking is not eligible for parole or early release. Rabago-Torres will serve the entire 18-year sentence day-for-day, without parole or early release.

“The Fentanyl crisis, and in particular the sale of Fentanyl disguised as other substances, is destroying the lives of individuals, their families, and our community,” DA Parker said. “The District Attorney’s Office will continue to vigorously prosecute those who sell and distribute this poison in our community.”

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