On Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced a Lynbrook man to more than two decades in prison for selling fentanyl, which caused the death of a retired police officer.
Ryan Mueller, 33, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in U.S. District Court in Central Islip after pleading guilty last year to trafficking fentanyl that caused death. Prosecutors allege Mueller supplied a fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone tablet that murdered the 49-year-old retired cop in December 2022.
Authorities alleged Mueller kept millions of counterfeit pills and large amounts of fentanyl in his residence.
“Mueller ran a massive and lethal fentanyl operation,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr., stated. “He built vending-machine-sized pill presses, possessed kilos of fentanyl and millions of fake and deadly pharmaceutical pills, and sold the fentanyl that led to the tragic loss of life of a retired police officer.”
Law authorities recovered several kilograms of fentanyl and guns from Mueller’s residence. Furthermore, officials seized approximately 3.4 million counterfeit pills related to Mueller, including fake oxycodone, Xanax, and Quaaludes, as well as an additional 600 kilograms of fentanyl in brick form.
Officials labeled it as one of the largest pill seizures in the DEA’s New York Division history.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 80,400 persons in the United States died from drug overdoses in 2024, with synthetic opioids like fentanyl accounting for approximately 48,400 of those deaths.
While overall overdose deaths decreased from 2023, fentanyl remained the primary cause of the issue.
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