Houston News tagged interest

A 27-year-old Katy resident and former football star at both Cinco Ranch High School and Rice University has been ordered to federal prison for distributing a deadly synthetic opioid, announced U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.

Stuart Mouchantaf pleaded guilty Feb. 20, 2020. At that time, he admitted he distributed carfentanil to a former football star at Rice University with NFL aspirations which resulted in his death.

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Today, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ordered Mouchantaf to serve a total of 144 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. At the hearing, the court heard statements from the victim’s mother, sister and father. In handing down the sentence, the court noted the case was one of the more difficult cases he had heard. He added that the sentence was necessary to promote general deterrence from the crime and respect for the law as well as just punishment for the offense.

In March 2018, a Rice University student had failed to report to football practice. Authorities responded to 1900 block of Norfolk where they found the body. They pronounced him dead on the scene. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences conducted an autopsy and determined the cause of death resulted from the toxic effects of carfentanil.

The investigation revealed Mouchantaf provided pills containing carfentanil to the victim which ultimately resulted in his death.  

Mouchantaf was a former football player and captain on the Rice football team. A Houston-area native, Mouchantaf had played football at Cinco Ranch High School before attending Rice.

Mouchantaf has been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The Houston Police Department led this part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation as part of “Operation Be That Guy” with the assistance of U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason Corley and Robert Stabe prosecuted the case.

OCDETF identifies, disrupts and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.