Mexican illegal immigrant sentenced to 13 years in prison for selling fentanyl-laced pills that caused Portland teen's death

An illegal immigrant has been sentenced to just over 13 years in prison for distributing the pills made with fentanyl that were responsible for a Portland, Oregon teen’s death.

27-year-old Manuel Antonio Souza Espinoza, from Mexico, was arrested in March 2022 after the death of 16-year-old Griffin Hoffmann, a McDaniel High School sophomore.

Souza Espinoza was charged with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime in an April 2022 federal indictment, and in March 2025, he pleaded guilty to the charges. As part of the plea deal, he admitted that the counterfeit Oxycodone pills he sold to the teen containing fentanyl resulted in the fatal overdose. 

At the sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Hoffmann’s parents expressed how they wanted Souza Espinoza to spend the rest of his life in prison. They described their son as an amazing tennis player who dreamed of becoming a doctor, and said he was a friend to his severely autistic brother. 

Kerry Cohen, Hoffmann’s mother, said, "I get no pleasure from you going to prison or getting deported once your sentence is done. I get no pleasure from your misery or the pain that your family must be suffering. There is no justice here," per The Oregonian.

"You sold death in disguise. You press poison into something that seems safe, all to make money, and that’s heartless and ugly."

US District Court Judge Karin Immergut ultimately sentenced him to 157 months, or 13 years and one month, in prison, and three years of supervised release.

Michael Hoffmann, Hoffmann’s father, found his son unconscious at his desk on the morning of March 7, 2022. He had gone out with friends the night before to see a movie. That night, prosecutors said Griffin Hoffmann was delivered the pill through a teenage dealer from Souza Espinoza, and the teen thought he was buying a prescription pill.

Immergut said at the sentencing, "It is my hope and expectation that you will spend every moment of every day for the rest of your life thinking about the child that you killed and the life that you cut short."

The Mexican national expects to be deported to Mexico after his sentence.

Souza Espinoza had reportedly been dealing fentanyl since at least November 2021, and used Snapchat to sell. An informant identified him as a "very large drug dealer" with ties to a Mexican supplier. 

Souza Espinoza was arrested after police set up a controlled purchase of 1,000 pills using a confidential informant. Police seized a plastic bag full of 1,000 counterfeit pills and a loaded handgun with an extended magazine when they arrested him.