Police: Drug supplier charged with murder after fentanyl overdose in San Benito

SAN BENITO, Texas (ValleyCentral) — An alleged drug supplier is facing murder charges after a man died from a fentanyl overdose in San Benito.

Gregory Stephen Norris was arrested by San Benito police on a charge of murder in connection to the death of 32-year-old Arnoldo Garcia Jr.

_{Gregory Stephen Norris (Cameron County Jail)}

ValleyCentral spoke with Detective Gabriel Gonzalez, who said at 10 a.m. on March 26, police received a call about a potential overdose at a residence in San Benito. Police arrived and assessed the scene, where they found drug paraphernalia in the room.

Officers obtained evidence from the scene, including Garcia's cellphone.

Afterwards, police obtained a death certificate from the victim's family, which labeled Garcia's cause of death as a combination of methadone, methamphetamine and fentanyl. The case was then considered a murder.

When going through Garcia's call logs, they found that he had calls, Facebook messages and text messages with Norris — where Norris discussed fentanyl being brought from a different city.

Norris also discussed going to Garcia's residence.

Detectives interviewed Norris, who was in custody at a halfway house in Brownsville at the time. According to Detective Gonzalez, Norris provided a full confession and said he supplied Garcia with the fentanyl. He added that the two had met while serving time in county jail.

Garcia had been released from incarceration 13 days prior to the overdose.

"This is our first case in the city in regards to fentanyl," Gonzalez said. "We're taking it very serious."

Norris was booked into the Cameron County Jail where he remains in custody on a $500,000 bond.