Reno man given 10 years in prison over Sacramento-area fentanyl drug deals

A Reno man who admitted to selling counterfeit drugs containing fentanyl across the Sacramento area, in Placer County and in Stockton, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Saybyn Borges, 30, was given his sentence on Thursday on charges of drug possession with intent to distribute, for which he had pleaded guilty on Aug. 6.

The drug deals took place in 2018 and involved thousands of counterfeit oxycodone pills which contained approximately 1% fentanyl, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.

His conviction hinged upon two events: the first took place in Placer County on May 21, 2018. On that day, Borges sold an undercover law enforcement source 493 pills containing 30 milligrams of narcotics apiece.

As The Sacramento Bee reported at the time, an Auburn parking lot served as their venue, and the source traded $10,000 for a glass jar filled with blue-colored pills. Afterward, the source handed over the jar, but evidently had taken some for themselves. Auburn police indicated that the source experienced an overdose shortly after, and later admitted to law enforcement that they had taken three pills. A Drug Enforcement Administration lab test was required to determine that the pills contained fentanyl.

The second event took place a few weeks later in a Stockton parking lot. On June 7 that same year, Borges sold more than 7,000 pills to a law enforcement source for $126,000 — but things did not go as planned.

A law enforcement source and two undercover officers arrived to confront and arrest Borges, who had in his hands a brown paper bag of pills.

With his gold Nissan Altima, Borges rammed an unmarked law enforcement vehicle, which in turned hit one officer’s hand, injuring it.

Borges sped off at 100 miles per hour on a two-lane road, but after a short pursuit, he was apprehended. With more than 100 pills in his car and thousands more in his wake, officers determined he had tried to dispose his stash as he drove away.