Suicide assistance drugs imported into Chicago area from Mexico, feds say

Federal prosecutors expanded their case this week against a Mexican resident accused of importing a drug into the United States to help people commit suicide, including in the Chicago area.Daniel Gonzalez-Munguia, 40, faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted of the in the indictment handed up Tuesday.Court records show he was first charged in 2016 and indicted and arrested in 2021. The feds then added two counts to the case in an indictment this week.Gonzalez-Munguia is being held in Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center,records show. His attorney, Darryl Goldberg, told the Sun-Times in an email that Gonzalez-Munguia is “presumptively innocent.”“This indictment involves a controversial subject matter with strong opinions on both sides,” Goldberg wrote. “[Gonzalez-Munguia] intends to address this through the legal process and not through the media at this time.”The investigation dates back to March 2016, when federal authorities inspected a package in Kentucky on its way to . Though declared as “2 mexican crafts,”it allegedly contained two pre-packaged, 100-milliliter medicine bottles containing pentobarbital and 20 tabletsof an anti-nausea medication.Investigators say they went to visit the package’s intended recipient, who turned out to be a licensed Wisconsin pharmacist and Lake Villa resident who had been staying in a residential suites hotel in Libertyville.The pharmacist explained that his wife wanted a divorce and secured an order of protection, prompting his move to the hotel, records show. He said he became deeply depressed and began considering suicide — even paying for an online manual he described as a “how-to guide on committing suicide.”The manual contained an email address for an individual who could provide drugs, he allegedly explained.The pharmacist said he sent an email to the account and wound up ordering two vials of pentobarbital and anti-nausea pills, using Western Union to pay $644 to an individual in Mexico, records show.The pharmacist also shared with investigators emails he’d received,including one that explained how to take the drugs and encouraged him to “please erase all emails between you and me and dispose the bottles at a safe place.”The pharmacist told the authorities he was no longer suicidal and had begun seeing a counselor.Investigators said they identified Gonzalez-Munguia as the user of the email account.They said the same account was used to sell pentobarbital to a 26-year-old in Mount Prospect, a 54-year-old in Chicago, a 29-year-old and a 52-year-old in Colorado.All four had died.