OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY

District Attorney John K. Bramlett, Jr., Twentieth Judicial District

Madison and Rankin Counties

Media Release
For Immediate Release: For more information:
Tuesday, May 30, 2023 (601) 825-1472

Fentanyl Traffickers Caught, Convicted, and Sentenced in Rankin County

Rankin County, MS - Madison and Rankin Counties’ District Attorney Bubba Bramlett announced that on May 23,
2023, 42-year-old Fredy Gutierrez of Victorville, CA, and 51-year-old Gabriel Becerra Manuel of Zapotlanejo,
Jalisco, Mexico, pled guilty to trafficking fentanyl. Judge Dewey K. Arthur sentenced both Gutierrez and Manuel to
forty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with ten of those years to be served day-for-
day, without the possibility of parole or early release.
On February 4, 2022, a Rankin County Sheriff’s Department deputy stopped an MCI passenger bus driven by
Gabriel Manuel on Interstate 20 for a traffic violation. Upon approaching the bus, the deputy found Gutierrez and
Manuel to be the only two passengers. While speaking to the two individuals, the deputy noted numerous
inconsistencies in their travel plans and itinerary, including where they were coming from and going and the reason
for the trip. During a consensual bus search, Rankin County deputies located 81 bundles of fentanyl powder
concealed in the bathroom wall in the bus’s rear, weighing 91.9 kilograms, or just over 200 pounds.

The deputy arrested Gutierrez and Manuel for trafficking fentanyl and turned the bundles over to the Mississippi
Forensics Laboratory for analysis. The lab confirmed that the powder was indeed fentanyl. As a result, a Rankin
County Grand Jury indicted Gutierrez and Manuel for Aggravated Trafficking on November 17, 2022.

“Fredy Gutierrez and Gabriel Manuel chose to traffic the very drug about which I have repeatedly warned our
community,” stated District Attorney John K. Bramlett, Jr. “This was one of the largest busts in the United States,
not counting those on the border between Mexico and the U.S. Recently released data from the Drug Enforcement
Administration (“DEA”) and the Department of Justice shows that between 2019 and 2021, fatal overdoses increased
by approximately 94%, with an estimated 196 Americans dying every day from fentanyl. In 2022, the DEA seized
over 57 million fentanyl-laced counterfeit prescription pills and over 13,000 pounds of fentanyl powder – the
equivalent of about 410 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl. That is enough fentanyl to kill the entire U.S.
population.”

Bramlett added, “We hope this is the end of Gutierrez’s and Manuel’s criminal behavior and that this sentence will
discourage others from choosing to make easy money by trafficking illegal drugs in and through our county, state,
and country. We would like to thank the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, the Homeland Security task force,
and other officers who assisted in removing this deadly drug from our streets, thus sparing an untold number of lives.
My office will continue to diligently prosecute these poison peddlers, ensuring if they are caught in Rankin or
Madison Counties, long prison sentences will be sought as allowed by law.”

-MORE-
 OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY
District Attorney John K. Bramlett, Jr., Twentieth Judicial District
Madison and Rankin Counties

PAGE 2 – FENTANYL TRAFFICKERS

Defendants:

Name: Fredy Gutierrez

DOB: 7/11/1980

Name: Gabriel Becerra Manuel

DOB: 9/10/1971

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