An on-duty Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy survived after overdosing on fentanyl he had seized during an arrest, a recently published internal investigation has revealed.
The 2023 incident initially sparked alarm as officials believed he had collapsed after being “exposed” to fentanyl. The sheriff’s spokesperson alerted the media, and some deputies who had witnessed their colleague’s near-death sought therapy, according to the 468-page internal report.
Deputy Marvin Morales was discovered unresponsive on the floor of a sheriff’s station bathroom. Drug paraphernalia was in the pocket of his uniform.
Morales later told sheriff’s officials that he had ingested the drug “with the intent to commit suicide” because he had been suffering from
depression. The investigation would reveal, however, that this was not the first time Morales had used drugs he’d seized.
In the Oct. 24, 2023, incident that led to his overdose, Morales conducted a “suspicious subject stop” around 5:40 p.m. and found a tinfoil bundle with methamphetamine in it sticking out of the suspect’s pants. A laboratory test on the narcotics would later identify the seized drug as fentanyl, the report states.
