By Annie Goodykoontz
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — A woman was arrested on suspicion of attempting to bring fentanyl into a Los Angeles youth facility while visiting her child, according to a release from the Los Angeles County Probation Department.
Jeny Morenoparra, 42, was initially arrested in 2023 during a visit to the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar after a supervising deputy probation officer found her in possession of more than 30 pills that contained fentanyl, according to an additional release from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Soon after the arrest, she was released while authorities reviewed the case, the department said. In May, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a statement that he reopened the case and filed an arrest warrant for Morenoparra.
“Fentanyl is too dangerous a threat — 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine — to not treat its lethality with the seriousness and immediacy it requires,” Hochman said.
Morenoparra was taken into custody on July 11 by the Probation Department’s Special Enforcement Operations team, the statement said.
She will appear Friday in the San Fernando Courthouse, where she faces felony counts of bringing an illegal substance into a jail facility, employment of a minor to sell or carry a narcotic and possession for sale of a controlled substance.
“Introducing drugs into a secure facility endangers public safety and lives, and undermines rehabilitation,” Chief Probation Officer Guillermo Viera Rosa said in a news release. “We appreciate the District Attorney’s focus on accountability and public safety.”
Earlier this month, The Times reported that the same juvenile hall was deemed “unsuitable” for holding youths by the Board of State and Community Corrections. In an inspection report, the board reported that staff members of the facility were inadequately trained, inattentive to juveniles during safety checks and unfairly confined youth to their rooms.
The case remains under investigation, authorities said.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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