Mom Pleads Guilty to Providing Fentanyl That Killed Her Sons’ Father

An Albuquerque mother who concealed a deadly dose of fentanyl inside her children’s luggage pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal drug crime, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Magdalena Silva Banuelos, 47, was indicted in November 2022. She pleaded guilty Wednesday to distribution of fentanyl before U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn.

In plea papers, she admitted she gave her sons’ father the fentanyl that killed him.

On May 31, 2022, Ms. Silva Banuelos put her sons, ages 8 and 10, onto a flight from Albuquerque to Dallas to visit her ex-husband, their father.  

Surveillance video from Dallas / Love Field Airport shows that her ex-husband picked up the boys from the gate around 9:47 p.m., rifled through their luggage at around 10:17 p.m., and entered the airport restroom at around 10:26 p.m.  A few minutes later, he overdosed and died in a restroom stall, just steps away from his sons.  At 10:33 p.m., his sons exited the restroom, visibly distraught.

From inside the stall, investigators recovered a Clinique brand makeup container containing more than a gram of fentanyl.  In plea papers, Ms. Silva Banuelos admitted she packed the fentanyl for her ex-husband’s use.  

Text messages between him and Ms. Silva Banuelos confirmed that she knew he planned on ingesting the fentanyl and was aware of the risk it posed.

“Hey you need to be careful,” she wrote a few hours before he died.

“Yes ma’am. Very slow and easy,” he replied.

“Just one and then wait you’ll see,” she said. “Just one.”
“Ok cool. Thank you. Will do,” he said.

“No passing out on the kitchen floor,” she responded. “Seriously you could od. No dying on the kitchen floor… It’s going to f**k you up!!!

At her January 2023 detention hearing, the prosecutor said Ms. Silva Banuelos “used her minor children to mule drugs.”

“This case is a double tragedy: A pair of young boys lost one parent to drugs, and the other to the criminal justice system,“ said U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton.  “This defendant allowed her two young sons to fly more than 500 miles cross-country with a highly lethal synthetic opioid stashed inside their suitcase, knowing full well how dangerous it was. These boys stood nearby as their father suffered a fatal overdose after ingesting it. The Justice Department will continue to fight until fentanyl is eradicated from our streets.” 

“Fentanyl not only destroys individuals, it also destroys families.  This tragic reality could not be more evident than when looking at the destruction caused by the actions of Ms. Silva Banuelos that terrible day,” said Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chávez of the DEA Dallas Field Division.  “The DEA will never stop working to remove this terrible drug and its even more terrible effects from our communities so tragic events like this can never happen again.”

Under the terms of her plea agreement, Ms. Silva Banuelos faces 12 years in prison.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division and the Dallas Police Department conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Office of the Medical Examiner, Southwest Institute of Forensic Science at Dallas, and Dallas Fire & Rescue. Assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Coker is prosecuting the case.