A Garland woman will spend 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges involving the delivery of methamphetamine and fentanyl in Wood County.
Brittany Elaine Gargiulo, 29, was sentenced Thursday, Sept. 24, after pleading guilty to the first-degree felony offense of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance involving between 4 and 200 grams of methamphetamine. She was sentenced to 25 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Gargiulo also pleaded guilty to the second-degree felony offense of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance involving between 1 and 4 grams of fentanyl and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The sentences will run concurrently. Gargiulo was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and court costs.
The charges stemmed from a May 19 traffic stop in Quitman. A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper stopped a Ford Mustang for a muffler violation and illegal window tint. Gargiulo was a passenger in the vehicle.
According to the Wood County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, Gargiulo and the driver told the trooper they were returning from Dallas. The trooper reported that both appeared unusually nervous during the stop.
When Gargiulo unzipped a bag she was carrying on her shoulder, the trooper saw several glass pipes commonly used to smoke controlled substances, according to the district attorney’s office. A search of the bag uncovered several plastic bags containing white and blue powdery substances.
When questioned by the trooper, Gargiulo said the substances contained fentanyl. A search of the passenger side of the vehicle also uncovered a syringe containing methamphetamine, according to the district attorney’s office.
Gargiulo was arrested following the search. During further questioning, she told investigators she traveled to Dallas every two weeks to bring narcotics back to the Wood County area. Authorities also determined Gargiulo had outstanding warrants from Dallas and Tarrant counties.
The substances recovered from Gargiulo’s bag were submitted to the Texas Department of Public Safety crime laboratory in Tyler for testing. The substances tested positive for methamphetamine and fentanyl.
“We are all very fortunate that another drug dealer has been removed from our Wood County streets. This defendant was bringing fentanyl and other controlled substances back to Wood County for distribution at least twice a month. There is no way to know the total volume of fentanyl that she distributed amongst this county, but going forward the volume will be zero. My office will continue to work with our law enforcement officers to remove drugs and offenders like Ms. Gargiulo from our community,” Wood County Criminal District Attorney Angela Albers said.