An illegal alien, who was convicted of helping operate a deadly counterfeit drug scheme in the United States, was previously released from the southern border into the United States by former President Joe Biden’s administration, Breitbart News has learned.

This month, a New York jury convicted illegal alien Edward Eustate Jimenez of the Dominican Republic, as well as Dominican national Francisco Alberto Lopez Reyes, for their involvement in a nationwide counterfeit drug operation that sold online fake pharmaceuticals to unsuspecting victims.

The drugs, marketed as real pharmaceuticals, were often laced with fentanyl.

In one case, a 45-year-old woman, who thought she was purchasing prescription oxycodone from the fake online pharmacy, died after having taken the fentanyl-laced pills. She was a veteran of the U.S. Army.

“These criminals ran a deadly scheme to sell millions of counterfeit pharmaceutical pills and ultimately killed a person with their fentanyl-laced products,” the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Lauren Bis said. “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, DHS will never stop cracking down on drug-trafficking and locking up those who profit off of bringing this poison into our country.”

Jimenez was convicted of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and distributing narcotics.

The illegal alien, Breitbart News has learned, had first entered the U.S. as a got-away — crossing the southern border undetected.

In December 2022, he was encountered by Border Patrol in Arizona and subsequently released into the U.S. interior as part of Biden’s and then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ expansive catch-and-release policy that saw millions released into the country.

Meanwhile, Reyes, who was found guilty of serving as a principal administrator of a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death, narcotics distribution, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, carried out the scheme from the Dominican Republic.

Reyes was extradited to the U.S. in October 2024 to face the charges against him.

“Thanks to the hard work of the brave men and women of ICE law enforcement, these criminal aliens from the Dominican Republic have been brought to justice,” Bis said.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com.