PHOENIX — A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to prison for supplying harmful drugs to people living at Phoenix's downtown homeless encampment.
Cristian Machado was sentenced last week in Maricopa County Superior Court after he pleaded guilty to possessing and attempting to sell narcotics, according to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
Between May and June 2022, Machado supplied fentanyl and methamphetamine to people living in the homeless encampment and was later apprehended by undercover detectives.
In exchange for pleading guilty, the court agreed to dismiss several of the defendant's original drug charges.
Machado was sentenced to spend 3.5 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections, followed by four years of probation.
"To target those who are experiencing homelessness, and particularly vulnerable, is especially cruel and this sentence demonstrates that my office will hold those who pose a danger to others accountable,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, who recently won an election to continue serving as the Valley's top prosecutor until 2024.
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